The FMC Rønland chemical plant, formerly Cheminova, will shut down at the turn of the year, ending around 400 jobs on Harboøre Tange near Lemvig.
DR reports that the closure, announced this week, is being met with sorrow rather than relief locally. Museum curator Inger Bjørn Knudsen of Lemvig Museum tells DR that Cheminova is an ambivalent story. On one side it was a highly praised workplace, on the other side sits a lasting worry about the pollution.
TV 2 reported that production stops at the end of 2026 and that about 400 employees are being laid off. Per Limfjord Update, FMC spokesperson Kaitlin O’Shaughnessy said the closure is part of the company’s global strategy to optimize production. The company is in dialogue with the local cooperation committee, as Danish law requires.
Around one in 20 of the local workforce
According to DR, the roughly 400 lost jobs correspond to up to one in 20 people in Lemvig, which has a workforce of 9,000. That means many in the municipality must now find work elsewhere. For a generation, the plant was the area’s largest private employer.
Fagbladet 3F reports that about 230 of the affected employees are hourly workers, including metalworkers and electricians. A reduced workforce is to be kept on for cleanup tasks during 2027.
Lemvig’s mayor called the shutdown a local catastrophe, according to Danske Kommuner. The mayor estimated that around 500 people could be without a job from the turn of the year, including contractors and associated workers beyond the core staff.
A plant tied to the area since 1953
Knudsen told DR that Lemvig’s business council approached founder Gunnar Andreasen in the 1950s and suggested he place the factory in the area. The plant moved from Måløv on Zealand to Harboøre Tange in 1953, after residents and the municipality there complained about wastewater from insecticide production. Local hiring also brought laboratory staff, and Lemvig Gymnasium is often named as one result.
The site is one of Denmark’s largest generational pollution cases. DR reports that more than 150 tons of chemicals are likely deposited at Høfde 42, the old Cheminova ground and the newer factory ground. After complaints from fishermen about dead fish, a 1965 report documented extensive chemical contamination at Harboøre Tange.
DR also notes that people who lived in Thyborøn-Harboøre around 1970 had roughly 20 percent more cancer cases through 2018 than residents of two other West Jutland areas. Lemvig Museum is showing the exhibition Insektvej: Cheminova og Vestjylland through October, when the museum closes for the season, and it returns next season.
