Ineos is moving quickly to expand its position as Europe's leading PVC producer. The Swiss-based group's subsidiary Ineos Compounds has announced plans to merge with UK independent compounder Doeflex Compounding into an integrated company.

The deal is subject to the EU's final approval of Ineos' planned 50:50 PVC production joint venture with Solvay, which recently was greenlighted by EU competition authorities and is scheduled to close in this year's fourth quarter.

Doeflex, whose activities are concentrated at Swindon, UK, has a portfolio of nearly 10,000 different compounds in both rigid and flexible PVC.

Ineos' PVC compounding business has operations in the UK, Switzerland and Sweden, with an estimated 100,000 t/y of capacity. It supplies special formulations of both rigid and flexible PVC compounds to the European the construction and medical supplies sectors.

The two companies said the goal of the merger is to be "better positioned to meet the needs of European customers in the rapidly changing markets and highly challenging economic environment."