It has been speculated that the change to the idle plant was to give employment to the workers there.

The customers would also subsidize the cost of buyouts for employees who lose their jobs, plus incentive pay for others who are retained to monitor the idle plant.

Care of idle plant and machinery will also be included in the program.

In January 2012, Methanex announced it would move one of its idle Chilean plants to the United States.

But some analysts question whether such a stimulus will have the desired effect given that inventories of equipment remain high and manufacturers still have excess capacity - idle plants.

For while the plant, idle since July, had been cited for safety problems, that was not the stated reason for its demise.

But opponents of factory floor cooperation also accuse G.M. of pursuing policies, like buying parts from foreign suppliers, that idle plants and workers.

Asbestos, which once meant jobs, has come to mean idle plants, bankrupt companies and former employees battling for some compensation for their crippling, often fatal asbestos-related disease.

In the $31 million first phase, a concentrator was built at Ruashi using idle plant from O'okiep.

And Oak Ridge faces a domino effect: less money means fewer people means more shuttered facilities means more idle plants in need of cleaning up.