COVID-19 Media Center

At NOVA Chemicals, we continue to monitor the increase in cases of COVID-19, and we are focused on the health and safety of our workforce, communities, customers, and suppliers while continuing operations of our plants and providing best in class customer service. To achieve all of this and to help stop the spread of COVID-19, we are following governmental health organization guidelines and have implemented the following directives:

• All non-site critical staff are working from home.
• Business travel remains suspended with very limited exceptions for business-critical needs. We are also strongly encouraging employees to delay non-essential personal travel.
• Site-critical staff are adhering to all government protocols, including social distancing, wearing masks, PPE, and eliminating non-essential in-person meetings and other gatherings.
• Site visitors are restricted to those essential to support continued safe and reliable operations.
• Point of entry temperature screenings and a health-screening tool are being utilized at our manufacturing, construction, and innovation sites.
• Contact tracing and conservative COVID protocols are in place.

Read more about how NOVA Chemicals has responded through the COVID-19 crisis.

A Message from NOVA Chemicals

These are truly unprecedented times — for us as individuals, for our company and for the world.

NOVA Chemicals and all of its employees are sincerely grateful to the healthcare providers for their selfless work to fight this pandemic. We are also thankful for our frontline workers, who are coming to our sites each day to keep our business running, so that we can produce materials essential to helping stop the spread.

We started out 2020 knowing that there would be significant market challenges due to supply and demand imbalance, ongoing political uncertainty, and aggressive sustainability goals. As we close in on the end of the second quarter and find ourselves navigating through this unprecedented situation with COVID-19, the challenges we face are more significant than we could have possibly forecasted.

This global pandemic has far-reaching implications, and – while it’s still too early to tell what the full outcome will be – we know that it has changed the face of business and the way we all interact forever.

Our employees are working tirelessly in our facilities, ensuring we can continue safe and reliable operations, and from home, continuing to deliver an exceptional customer experience. We are all learning new ways to connect and communicate in order to run our essential business. We’re keeping our site critical workers safe with enhanced protocols, and we continue to have reduced onsite staff at all our locations.

As we face uncertainty, the collective spirit we have witnessed this year should leave us with optimism and hope for the future. At NOVA Chemicals, we are proud of the role our industry is playing in creating products that are supporting the medical community, keeping food fresh and safe, and providing sanitary options for packaging.

We look forward to the time when we can gather again together as a company, a community and as business partners. But for now, be safe, be well, and we will see you soon.

Supply Chain & Operations

The chemical industry has been designated as essential critical infrastructure in the U.S. and an essential workplace in Canada. Despite borders being closed to the north and south, we do not anticipate any issues with cross-border shipments at this time, as trade is considered critical and distribution/supply chains in North America are open.

Our manufacturing sites remain operational, and we have experienced limited impacts on our ability to deliver products timely. Our customer service, sales, and technical service teams are working diligently from home through all available technologies to ensure our customers receive the same exceptional customer experience as always. Customers may also place orders, follow shipments, and more on our new CustomerCare platform.

We all have great reason to be proud of our industry and the work we’re doing right now. Polyethylene and other polymers are helping prevent COVID-19 transmission and treat those impacted by the virus. Plastics enable medical supplies and equipment, including non-surgical gowns, COVID-19 test kits, test tubes, gloves, ventilators, and much more. Food packaging helps prevent virus transmission by creating a barrier and also helps keep food fresh longer, minimizing trips to the grocery store, while point of sale bags offer a more sterile option for getting goods home from the store.

We have adjusted production to provide sufficient supply of resins for food packaging, medical supplies, and other high-demand goods.

Supporting Our Communities

NOVA Chemicals recognizes the tremendous need of those left vulnerable by the pandemic, and it is in our nature to reach out and support our neighbors in need. In response, NOVA Chemicals is committing US$60,000 in support of our communities. We are also directly matching employee donations up to an additional US $140,000 to organizations in each of our core geographies that provide immediate help where it is needed most.

Growth Projects

The health and safety of our employees, contractors, and community remains a top priority as we navigate the COVID-19 pandemic. The decisions we’ve made to date allow us to keep worker safety and well-being at the forefront, while continuing to progress our business-critical construction projects.

Ontario: In keeping with Ontario government directives for significant industrial petrochemical projects and our company’s foundational principles and core values, NOVA Chemicals has taken significant steps to maintain the health and safety of our employees, contractors and community. We are safely and steadily progressing construction activities on our second Advanced SCLAIRTECH™ technology facility (AST2) and Corunna cracker expansion projects and maintaining our compliance with public health guidelines and governmental directives.

Alberta: Commissioning and construction activities on our furnace refurbishment project in Alberta have been paused. Commissioning work will resume once we feel confident that the risk of exposure has diminished. At this time, it is too early to say when construction will commence. We will continue to monitor the situation and make decisions based upon business conditions.