when competitors became a team when competitors became a team

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CANADA > Canada is the next largest country in the world (after Russia) but has only 33 million inhabitants. The country is divided into 10 provinces and three territories. Large parts of northern Canada are principally uninhabited. > Capital city: Ottawa > Official languages: English and French. English is more commonly spoken, although in the province of Quebec, with over 7 million inhabitants, over 80 percent speak “Quebec French”. Plus there are three native Canadian populations who speak some 50 different languages. > Form of government: Monarchy (the English monarch is the head of state). Parliamentary democracy. Canadians pay relatively high taxes but enjoy a well-developed social welfare service that includes free medical care. > Religion: Catholic: 45 percent (most in the province of Quebec). Protestant: 36 percent. Yukon British Columbia Alberta 12 ekaecho | # 4 2007 Nothwest Territories Saskatchewan Manitoba Hudson Bay Ontario Quebec Quebec City Montreal Magog t Magog is the third largest chlorate factory in the world and among the most efficient of Eka Chemicals’ 12 chlorate factories. Professional pride among employees is high. “To produce chlorate you need electricity, salt, water – and know-how. We’ve got plenty of the last,” says Pierre Marchand, stand-in plant manager. ■ Many people in the province of Quebec are familiar with Magog as an idyllic, small summer town on the banks of lake Memphremagog. The citizens of Montreal like to come here for weekends. The Eka Chemicals plant is situated near the town center and right beside the Magog Riv-
er that leads into the lake. The river water is used to cool down the manufacturing equipment. Pierre Marchand has been acting plant manager, standing in for Cynthia Martin while she has been on parental leave. He has worked here since 1989 and his regular position is plant engineer. “There are many people here with long experience of producing sodium chlorate. This is then sold to the pulp mills who use it for paper making. It is needed to make fine white paper for glossy magazines and diazo paper,” says Pierre. Enormous amounts of salt are used for making chlorate, and this comes from the salt mines in the neighboring province of Ontario. The largest single expense for the factory however, is the purchase of electricity from local Hydro Quebec. “We use approximately 100 megawatts. We work constantly in the interests of reducing our power consumption. The factory floor is empty; those who work here Eka Chemicals factories in Canada are located one on either side of Montreal, the largest city in the province of Quebec. Pierre Marchand is proud over the Magog plant producing a worldclass product. “But we have worked hard for it, and we need to keep it up!” he says. monitor the process from the control room. The plant is operating 24-hours a day. “This kind of production works best if it keeps going non-stop. We don’t even stop production during the summer. We count a longer halt in production as being 24 hours, and this has to be planned in detail,” says Pierre. WE MEET ANOTHER PLANT VETERAN, Martin Poulin, in the control room. He has worked here since the factory was new and is now a production manager with a <strong>team</strong> of 18 working shifts. “We’ve been running at almost full capacity the last two years. Last year we broke our production record,” he tells us. The factory works in close cooperation with the engineering faculty at the University of Sherbrooke, located nearby. Future chemicals engineers do a three month practical stint with Eka Chemicals, and many students find summer jobs here. “This plant is a pure dream for them. Everything THE MAGOG PLANT > Situated in the town of Magog (over 23,000 inhabitants), 120 km east of Montreal. > Manufactures: Sodium chlorate, but also sells the by-product, hydrogen. > Number of employees: 60 > In operation: 24 hours a day, seven days a week > History: Erected in 1978, Magog was Nobel Industrier’s first chlorate plant in North America. ake pride in their work they are studying they find here; solids, liquids, gas – and we have all the equipment they need. Additionally, they can see how we pipe over our hydrogen surplus production to the neighboring British Oxygen Company factory (BOC),” says Pierre. The final product, in the shape of small white crystals, is loaded onto railroad cars for transport to customers. Eka Chemicals in Marietta, USA, look after all sales of all sodium chlorate for the four North American plants. Text & photo: Monica Rossing Footnote: Eka Chemicals in Columbus, USA, is the world’s second largest chlorate factory. The largest, run by a competitor, is the Canexus factory in Brandon, Manitoba, Canada. ekaeko | # 4 2007 13
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when competitors became a team when competitors became a team

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