BASF sells U.S. PS business.

BASF Corp., Florham Park, N.J., will sell its polystyrene business in the U.S. and Canada to Ineos Americas, LLC, the North American subsidiary of Ineos Capital, a U.K.-based international chemical company. The sale includes the Joliet, Ill., plant that BASF bought from Mobil Chemical in 1992. That PS plant, the second largest in the U.S., can make 850 million lb/yr of GPPS and HIPS.

BASF retains its Styropor EPS bead business in the U.S. and Canada, and it will continue to produce and sell solid PS in other regions. BASF has a 330-million-lb GPPS plant at Altamira, Mexico. Its output generally will not be sold in the U.S. and Canada, except for Styropor EPS. BASF also produces ABS, ASA, and SBC copolymer (Styrolux) at Altamira for sale in the U.S. and Canada.

Ineos is a diversified chemical company formed in 1998. Among its plastics-related products are fluorocarbon blowing agents and PVC, the latter through majority ownership of European Vinyls Corp. (EVC). It also owns a minority share of Lucite International, formerly Ineos Acrylics, which acquired the acrylics businesses of ICI and DuPont.