Sabic's Geleen chemical plant drops output as workers strike

KHOBAR, Saudi Arabia (Reuters) - A strike by workers at the SABIC Europe Chemicals Geleen plant in the Netherlands has lowered production, the company's Saudi Arabian owner said on Saturday, without specifying by how much.

Saudi Basic Industries Corp (SABIC) <2010.SE> said in a bourse statement that talks with a labor union over working conditions had not yet been successful and that it did not know what impact the strike would have on profits or production.

"The decrease in production begins 31/1/2013 due to the proactive measure taken by the union workforce as a consequence of no finalized agreement regarding work conditions," it said in the statement.

In Geleen, SABIC has two naphtha crackers and several polymerization plants to produce polyethylene and polypropylene. Galeen produces ethylene, propylene, polyethylene and polypropylene.

"It is not possible to determine the financial effect or the effect on production capacity, at this time, because the affected plants are not yet known," SABIC added in the statement.

(Reporting by Reem Shamseddine; Editing by Angus McDowall and Jon Hemming)