MOSCOW (MRC) -- BASF, the German chemicals giant, and Shell, an Anglo-Dutch multinational oil and gas company, have reached an agreement for BASF to sell its share in the 50-50 joint venture Ellba Eastern, Jurong Island, Singapore to Shell, reported BASF on its site.
The joint venture, which is operated by Shell, produces styrene monomer (SM) and propylene oxide. Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed. Closing is planned for December 31, 2014.
BASF remains globally committed to propylene oxide and its respective value chains. Therefore, as part of the agreement, BASF and Shell have signed a supply contract to provide BASF with the necessary volumes of propylene oxide.
ELLBA Eastern started production in 2002. The plant is fully integrated into the Shell site on Jurong Island, Singapore, and has an annual capacity of 250,000 metric tons of propylene oxide and 550,000 metric tons of styrene monomer. The ELLBA joint venture between Shell and BASF in Moerdijk, the Netherlands, is not affected by the transaction.
As MRC informed earlier, in October 2014, BASF and Archroma agreed on the sale of BASF’s global textile chemicals business to Archroma, a supplier of specialty chemicals to the textile, paper and emulsions. Archroma is a portfolio company of SK Capital Partners, a private investment firm with focus on the specialty materials, chemicals and healthcare sectors. It is planned to integrate the business into the Archroma Textile Chemicals Specialties business. Currently, the textile chemicals business is part of BASF’s Performance Chemicals division.
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 had sales of about EUR74 billion in 2013 and over 112,000 employees as of the end of the year.
MRC