MOSCOW (MRC) -- Celanese has completed the sale of its 45% equity investment in Japanese engineering plastics company Polyplastics to Daicel Corp for USD1.575bn in cash, the US chemicals company said.
Daicel now owns all of Polyplastics, which makes liquid crystal polymers, polyphenylene sulphide (PPS), as well as polyoxymethylene (POM) copolymer, known as polyacetal. With the sale, announced in July, Celanese has monetised a “historically passive investment” and expects to deploy the proceeds into higher value-generating opportunities, it said.
As noted in the July 20, 2020, announcement, Celanese has been investing in and rapidly growing its own Engineered Materials base business globally over the last 10 years, independent of Polyplastics, with a footprint in Asia significantly greater now than when the Company entered the region more than 50 years ago through Polyplastics. The sale of Polyplastics is an intentional departure from a legacy relationship to a more contemporary approach to independently drive future growth, advance application development with customers, and pursue high-return expansion opportunities for the benefit of Celanese and its customers.
"Celanese is well-positioned to continue its growth trajectory as we increase investment in new product development to serve customer demand in growth segments and key geographies,” said Tom Kelly, Senior Vice President, Engineered Materials, Celanese. “We will continue to invest in product expansion to serve the growing demand in applications such as 5G, advanced mobility, medical/pharma, and sustainable materials. Celanese also plans to expand its manufacturing capacity and advance its T&I capabilities in Asia to meet rapidly growing demand in the region."
As MRC informed earlier, Clariant, Celanese, and Orbia have been fined a total of EUR260 million (USD296 million) by the European Commission for breaching EU competition rules by participating in a cartel related to ethylene purchases in Europe. Westlake, which also participated in the cartel, received full immunity by revealing the breach, avoiding an aggregate fine of about EUR190 million, the Commission says.
Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,594,510 tonnes in the first nine months of 2020, up by 1% year on year. Only high denstiy polyethylene (HDPE) shipments increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market reached 880,130 tonnes in the nine months of 2020 (calculated using the formula: production minus exports plus imports, exluding producers' inventories as of 1 January, 2020). Supply increased exclusively of PP random copolymer.
Celanese Corporation is a global technology leader in the production of differentiated chemistry solutions and specialty materials used in most major industries and consumer applications. Based in Dallas, Celanese employs approximately 7,700 employees worldwide and had 2019 net sales of USD6.3 billion.
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