BASF receives offer for styrenics assets

Global chemical company BASF AG is considering a sale of its styrenics division, and has received an initial offer for parts of its assets. The company announced that it is evaluating an offer for its styrene monomer (SM), polystyrene (PS), styrene butadiene copolymer (SBC), and acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) businesses.

The assets that are being considered had sales of 3.2 billion Euros approximately $4.6 billion in 2006. The proposed offer would include plants in Belgium, Mexico, Brazil, South Korea and India.

“Earnings in our styrenics activities have improved considerably thanks to efficiency optimization measures and fine-tuning of business models,” said Dr. John Feldman, member of BASFs executive board of directors responsible for the plastics segments. “However, further repositioning steps are necessary to meet appropriate levels of profitability.”

Although BASF will now embark on talks to examine the offer, the company noted that customers would not face any supply disruptions.

Additionally, BASF’s Styrenics division president Hans Reiners said that the company’s remaining styrenics activities would focus on foams and specialties for the construction, automobile, packaging, sport and leisure industries in the future.