LyondellBasell has completed its $2.2 billion acquisition of plastics compounder A. Schulman, doubling the size of its plastics compounding business and widening its portfolio to add an array of compounds for use in consumer and industrial products.

With Schulman, the Dutch-based, US-managed olefins and polyolefins giant will gain a berth in polyethylene compounding – up to now, its compounds have been solely polypropylene-based – and become the world's largest compounder company with 6,000 employees and annual revenue of more than $4.6 billion following integration of the Ohio company’s assets.

The deal, though relatively small in terms of the purchase price and sales added, will sharpen Lyondellbasell’s presence in the market. ”A. Schulman is a full-service provider to the compounding markets” said Bob Patel, CEO of the Texas player.

A much bigger deal may be in the offing for LyondellBasell. The group is in engaged in exclusive talks with Brazilian construction conglomerate Odebrecht about acquiring its 38.1% stake in petrochemicals giant Braskem. That company’s other major shareholder, oil group Petrobras, may also be eyeing the stake, however.

In other news, LyondellBasell has broken ground for its planned $2.4 billion propylene oxide and tertiary butyl alcohol plant in Channelview, Texas, the last step in its $5 billion Gulf Coast organic growth program. Capacity for the first product will total 470,000 t/y, the second plant will be able to produce 1 million t/y.