Goodyear has spent the past few years selling off anything that doesn’t roll on a rim, and now it’s finishing the job. On September 29, the Akron tiremaker approved a plan to shut its chemical plants in Niagara Falls, New York, and Bayport, Texas, according to its SEC filing. Those are the two sites Goodyear deliberately held back when it sold the rest of its chemical arm last year. sec
The filing lists about 85 job cuts and total pre-tax charges of $55 million to $75 million. Roughly $30 million of that is real cash, mostly for decommissioning and worker-related exit costs, while the rest is largely accelerated depreciation and other asset write-downs. That’s accounting-speak for equipment about to become scrap. Goodyear expects to book about $35 million in the third quarter and $15 million more before year-end, with the work substantially done by the end of 2027. sec
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The payoff: an expected $15 million to $20 million annual boost to Americas segment operating income starting in 2027. Run the napkin math and the cash outlay pays for itself in under two years. Easy call for a CFO. sec
The plants Goodyear kept, briefly
When Goodyear closed the sale of most of its chemical business, a Gemspring Capital affiliate took the Houston and Beaumont plants plus an Akron research office for a $650 million purchase price, effective Oct. 31, 2025. Niagara Falls and Bayport stayed with Goodyear. sec
Those two sites were a matched set. Goodyear’s own Bayport plant profile says the 55-acre facility, purchased in 1978, mainly produces hydroquinone, which serves as the primary feedstock for Niagara Falls. Upstate, New York regulators describe the plant as the maker of Polystay 100, a combined antioxidant, antiozonant and anti-flex-cracking agent for tires, belts and other industrial rubber goods. laportechamber ny
Why tires need this stuff
Rubber has an enemy floating in the air. Ozone attacks the double bonds in rubber polymers, and a flexing sidewall keeps exposing fresh material for it to chew on. The result is the spiderweb cracking every used-car shopper has spotted on tires that sat too long. Antiozonants work by migrating to the surface and reacting with ozone before it reaches the polymer, essentially a sacrificial bodyguard.
So this isn’t Goodyear giving up on durability. It’s Goodyear deciding it would rather buy the bodyguards than raise them. Owners shouldn’t expect any change in how their tires age, and checking date codes and sidewalls on older rubber matters just as much as it did last week.
The Niagara Falls baggage
This site doesn’t leave quietly. The state environmental agency classifies ortho-toluidine, which the plant emits, as a high-toxicity air contaminant capable of causing cancer. In 2021, it cut its annual guideline concentration for the chemical from 21 to 0.02 micrograms per cubic meter, a tightening of more than a thousandfold. ny
Following a 2023 notice of violation, Goodyear entered a January 2025 consent order requiring interim controls, production limits, and permanent state-of-the-art pollution equipment. Interim controls were operating by April 10, 2025. The consent order also demanded fresh stack testing and dispersion modeling. Meanwhile, the plant still runs under a 2011 permit, and regulators were requesting more information on the renewal as recently as April 2026. State environmental and health officials have said the emissions represent a low risk. ny
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Goodyear’s filing gives no reason for the closure. But look at it from Akron: keeping Niagara Falls alive meant new control hardware, more testing and a public permitting fight, all to make a product for a business it no longer wanted. Shutting the gate is cleaner. What cleanup looks like and how the consent order winds down are questions New York will have to answer, because the 8-K doesn’t.
The bigger squeeze
For scale, 85 jobs is a rounding error next to July. Goodyear’s Fayetteville filing outlined closing its North Carolina tire plant with about 1,750 job reductions, up to $565 million in charges, and an expected $270 million yearly operating-income gain from 2028 onward. sec
The through line is consistent: fewer plants, fewer side hustles, more focus on rubber that meets pavement. Goodyear once made its own synthetic rubber and chemical additives because owning the supply chain was the advantage. Now it’s paying $55 million to $75 million to get out of it.
What to watch: the third-quarter earnings report, where these charges should land, and whether New York regulators formally close the book on Niagara Falls once production stops.
If you work at Niagara Falls or Bayport, or live near either plant, what do you want answered that the 8-K doesn’t say?