MOSCOW (MRC) -- BASF has recently closed the previously announced transaction to divest its ultrafiltration membrane business to DuPont Safety & Construction (DuPont), according to Kemicalinfo.
The divestiture includes the shares of inge GmbH, the business’ headquarters and production site in Greifenberg, Germany, including all employees, its international sales force, and certain intellectual property previously owned by BASF SE.
Financial details of the transaction are not being disclosed.
The ultrafiltration membrane business had been part of BASF’s Performance Chemicals division. The division’s portfolio includes plastic additives, fuel and lubricant solutions, oilfield chemicals and mining solutions as well as kaolin minerals.
As MRC wrote earlier, BASF, the world's petrochemical major, has restarted its No. 1 steam cracker following a maintenance turnaorund. Thus, the company resumed operations at the plant on September 30, 2019. The plant was shut for maintenance in mid-August, 2019. Located at Ludwigshafen in Germany, the No. 1 cracker has an ethylene production capacity of 235,000 mt/year and a propylene production capacity of 125,000 mt/year.
Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing PE and polypropylene (PP).
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,904,410 tonnes in the first eleven months of 2019, up by 6% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. PE shipments increased from both domestic producers and foreign suppliers. The PP consumption in the Russian market was 1,161,830 tonnes in January-November 2019, up by 7% year on year. Deliveries of all grades of propylene polymers increased, with the homopolymer PP segment accounting for the largest increase.
BASF is the leading chemical company. It produces a wide range of chemicals, for example solvents, amines, resins, glues, electronic-grade chemicals, industrial gases, basic petrochemicals and inorganic chemicals. The most important customers for this segment are the pharmaceutical, construction, textile and automotive industries. BASF generated sales of around EUR63 billion in 2018.
MRC