BASF divests production site for paper coating dispersions in Austria
BASF will divest its business with paper coating dispersions in Pischelsdorf, Austria, and will concentrate the production in Europe at two sites, the Ludwigshafen Verbund site and the Hamina site in Finland.
The goal is to strengthen BASF’s ability to compete in the challenging market environment of paper coating dispersions in the long term.
Purchase price of EUR30 million
As a result of this decision, BASF SE has signed a contract with Synthomer Austria GmbH, a subsidiary of the British specialty chemicals manufacturer Synthomer plc, for the sale of the BASF production site for styrene butadiene dispersions for a purchase price of EUR30 million. The buyer will take over 42 employees at the Austrian site. The transaction is expected to be completed by late January 2018.
Other sites are not affected
In future, BASF will supply styrene butadiene dispersions in Europe from existing production sites in Ludwigshafen and Hamina. Furthermore, paper dispersion production will continue without changes in the other BASF production sites for paper coating dispersions in the EMEA region, i.e. Gebze, Turkey and Durban, South Africa. The styrene acrylic dispersions that are currently produced in Pischelsdorf are not included in the sale. Paper dispersions are applied to paper together with other additives and pigments to improve such properties as the print quality of graphic paper as well as packaging paper and cardboard.
