BASF adds more businesses for sale in divestment of global styrenic business

19-Aug-08

Faced with menacing petrochemicals supply glut in the Middle East and rising feedstock prices, BASF put more of its plastics business up for sale. In January 2009, BASF will complete the divestment process of its global styrenic business and reorganize the business into new subsidiaries. In addition, the scope of the activities to be sold will be expanded to include the styrene copolymer business, including plants in Ludwigshafen and Schwarzheide, along with styrene copolymer global marketing, sales and logistics activities. The new subsidiaries will operate the global styrenics business independently. They will combine styrene monomers (SM), polystyrene (PS), styrene butadiene copolymer (SBS) and acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) as well as the styrene copolymers consisting of the Luran® (SAN), Luran® HH (AMSAN), Luran® S (ASA), Terblend® N (ABS/PA), Terluran® HH (ABS-HH), Terlux® (MABS) and Styroflex® (SBS) brands. The styrenic commodities and copolymers with around 1,600 employees had total sales of about €4 billion in 2007 and production sites located in Antwerp, Belgium; Ludwigshafen and Schwarzheide, Germany; Altamira, Mexico; São José dos Campos, Brazil; Dahej, India; and Ulsan, South Korea. BASF will concentrate its remaining styrenic plastics activities on its foams business for the construction and packaging industries as part of the Performance Polymers division.