BASF buys US Chemdal for $656m in superabsorbents business expansion

23 November 1999 13:02  [Source: ICIS news]

LONDON (CNI)--German chemicals and pharmaceutical giant BASF is expanding its global superabsorbents business through the $656.5m (Euro638m) acquisition of US company Chemdal International Corp and the construction of a Euro70m plant in Antwerp, Belgium.

To ensure adequate supplies of acrylic acid, the basic feedstock for superabsorbents, BASF is increasing acrylic acid output from its plants in Europe and the US by 160 000 tonne/year to 890 000 tonne/year.

Through the acquisition of Chemdal, a subsidiary of Amcol International Corp, BASF will gain two 80 000 tonne/year superabsorbents units - in Aberdeen, Mississippi in the US and Birkenhead in the UK - plus a 20 000 tonne/year plant in Rayong, Thailand which is due onstream in Q1-2000. BASF currently produces 140 000 tonne/year of superabsorbents at plants in Europe and the US.

An agreement has been signed with Amcol but the acquisition still requires the consent of Amcol shareholders and antitrust authorities in the US and several European countries. BASF said Chemdal is expected to be absorbed into the group by the end of next year.

The new superabsorbents plant at Antwerp will have a capacity of 120 000 tonne/year and is expected onstream at the end of 2001. Following start-up, BASF will close its 25 000 tonne/year superabsorbents plant in Mannheim, Germany and will cease to take the 35 000 tonne/year which is toll manufactured by Clariant in Frankfurt, Germany.

The group said the Antwerp plant, which will use a BASF process, will mainly supply the European market and will make imports from the US superfluous.

Following completion of the Chemdal acquisition and projects in Antwerp and Brazil, BASF's superabsorbents output will grow to over 430 000 tonne/year. BASF is building a 70 000 tonne/year superabsorbents plant in Brazil, which is due onstream in 2002.

A process innovation from BASF's catalysis research is enabling the group to increase its acrylic acid production. European output, from the 270 000 tonne/year acrylic acid plant at Ludwigshafen, Germany and the 160 000 tonne/year plant in Antwerp, will be boosted from 430 000 tonne/year to 530 000 tonne/year. In the US, output from the Freeport, Texas acrylic acid unit will be raised from 300 000 tonne/year to 360 000 tonne/year.

A BASF spokesman said the acrylic acid expansions are expected to be completed by 2002, depending on market demand, and work on the Ludwigshafen plant has already begun.

He declined to reveal the investment required for the acrylic acid expansion, but said it would be low compared with the cost of building a new plant. All that is needed are minor modifications to existing plants, BASF said.

Following completion of BASF's new 160 000 tonne/year acrylic plant in Kuantan, Malaysia in H1-2000, BASF's acrylic acid output will reach over 1m tonne/year.

By: Anna Jagger
+1 713 525 2653

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