Basell SM/PO plant inaugurated at Moerdijk

07 October 1999 10:53  [Source: ICIS news]

LONDON (CNI)--The new styrene monomer/propylene oxide (SM/PO) plant built by the BASF and Shell Chemicals joint venture Basell at Moerdijk in The Netherlands was due to be inaugurated later Thursday by Dutch Minister of Economic Affairs Annemarie Jorritsma.

It has an annual capacity of 565 000 tonne of styrene and 250 000 tonne of PO and has cost around DM900m ($492m/Euro460m) to construct, said BASF.

The plant, which uses process technology developed by Shell, has been in production for several weeks. It is supplying SM to BP Amoco, enabling the company to close its 285 000 tonne/year capacity styrene plant at Baglan Bay, South Wales.

BASF said the new Basell plant, which is located close to Shell's existing chemicals complex at Moerdijk, was built within a record time of two years. It said this was some six months less than usually earmarked for such a project.

A similar plant is planned by Basell for Seraya in Singapore. This facility is due on stream in the second half of 2002.

ICIS Copyright © Reed Business Information 2009

Author: Neil Sinclair
+44 20 8652 3214

< previous article(ICIS Chemical Business podcast November 2, 2009)

For the latest chemical news, data and analysis that directly impacts your business sign up for a free trial to ICIS news - the breaking online news service for the global chemical industry.

Get the facts and analysis behind the headlines from our market leading weekly magazine: sign up to a free trial to ICIS Chemical Business.