BASF completes sale of US/Canadian polystyrene business

BASF (Florham Park, NJ) announced it has completed the sale of its polystyrene business in the U.S. and Canada to INEOS Americas, LLC. INEOS Americas is the North American subsidiary of INEOS (Lyndhurst, UK).
The transaction was approved by the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and involved the transfer of a production facility from Joliet, Ill, and some 140 employees, including the Joliet workforce, management, sales and marketing people from various locations, to INEOS. The Joliet polystyrene facility has a total capacity of some 385,000 metric tons per year and produces general-purpose polystyrene and high-impact polystyrene.
INEOS is a global manufacturer of specialty and intermediate chemicals and polymers. It is made up of seven businesses and its production network includes 43 manufacturing facilities in 14 countries. In 2004, INEOS has some 7,000 employees and sales of more than US$7 billion.