BASF Selling Brazil Polystyrene Unit

BASF has agreed to sell its Brazilian polystyrene business to Brazil’s Companhia Brasileira de Estireno (CBE) for an undisclosed sum. With the transaction, CBE will get a 190,000-metric-ton-per-year polystyrene plant in São José dos Campos, São Paulo. CBE has 120,000 metric tons of styrene capacity in Cubitão, São Paulo, and a 160,000-metric-ton styrene unit in Camaçari, Bahia, which it purchased from Dow Chemical in 2008. BASF recently closed a polystyrene plant in Ludwigs­hafen, Germany, and is selling a South Korean styrene plant to South Korean refiner SK Energy. BASF has wanted to exit the styrenics business since 2007.