Styrolution Reshuffles PS Production in U.S. and Europe

Styrolution, the 50:50 styrenics joint venture of BASF and Ineos, has announced plans to mothball its 150,000 t/y polystyrene plant at Indian Orchard, Massachusetts, in the U.S. by the end of 2014. The company said the move is in response to persistent overcapacity in the North American market, which has impacted its business. Some 58 employees currently working at the site will be affected.

The joint venture said it will continue to serve the North American PS market from its facilities at Decatur, Alabama, and Channahon, Illinois, as well as Altamira, Mexico. Production of SMMA copolymer will be transferred from Massachusetts to a Styrolution site in Decatur, Alabama, where a general purpose polystyrene line will be converted into a swing line .

Styrolution's European production, which in the past has been supplied with PS polymer from the U.S., will be indirectly impacted by the closure. European buyers of SMMA will be supplied in future from a new plant set to go on stream at the end of the third quarter at BASF's Ludwigshafen, Germany, site where it also will be compounded locally into the transparent product Zylar.

The alignment is part of what the styrenics jv calls its "Triple Shift" growth strategy, calling for a focus on styrenic specialties and Standard ABS, emerging markets and higher-growth industries.