Dow Chemical buys Basell Cologne PP plant

23 March 2001 11:11  [Source: ICIS news]

LONDON (CNI)--Basell, the world's leading polypropylene (PP) producer and Europe's biggest polyethylene (PE) maker, is to sell its Cologne, Germany, PP plant to US chemicals giant Dow.

The two companies announced on Friday that Dow will acquire the plant and associated business for an undisclosed sum and will take ownership of the site on 1 April this year.

Built in 1991, the site employs 71 people and has an annual capacity of 195 000 tonne.

The deal fulfils part of the undertaking given to the European Commission (EC) last year in return for its approval of Basell's formation. Basell was formed through the merger of the polyolefins activities of German chemical giant BASF and Anglo-Dutch energy group Shell.

BASF and Shell agreed with the EC to divest PP resins plants with a combined capacity of at least 600 000 tonne/year. They also agreed to sell 130 000 tonne/year of PP compounds capacity and the Novolen PP technology business of BASF subsidiary Targor. US groups ABB and Equistar bought the Novolen technology but until today's announcement no public agreement had been reached on disposal of any of the PP production capacity.

Romeo Kreinberg, Dow's business group president for polyolefins and elastomers, said of the Cologne deal: "This acquisition is an important step for our polypropylene business. The Cologne unit uses Unipol production technology, matching the technology and assets we recently acquired from Union Carbide. Dow can now offer a much broader array of technologies, products and services to our customers."

Volker Trautz, Basell’s president and chief executive, said the Cologne PP plant sale brings Basell a step closer to fulfilling the divestment requirements set forth by the EC.

By: Neil Sinclair
+44 20 8652 3214

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