Acquisition rumors swirling, LyondellBasell shutters Wesseling PP line

LyondellBasell will shut down what it calls one of its “smallest and oldest” polypropylene (PP) units, permanently idling a line in Wesseling, Germany by the end of 2009. In a release, Anton de Vries, LyondellBasell’s president of Europe, Asia & International, said the action will result in a 110,000-tonnes/yr reduction in capacity at the site. “We have concluded that our current polypropylene operating rate at Wesseling is no longer economically viable,” de Vries said.

The move comes during its bankruptcy reorganization and amidst rumors of potential suitors, including India’s Reliance Industries, which according to media reports, has offered from $10 to $12 billion for the global polyolefins leader. A Bloomberg report that Sinopec and U.S. private equity firm TPG had considered a rival bid for LyondellBasell has been refuted.

LyondellBasell’s Wesseling/Knapsack complex includes two manufacturing sites that operate as an integrated facility. Opened in 1953, Wesseling covers more than 2.7 km² and is LyondellBasell’s largest facility in Europe. Knapsack, which opened in 1970, is 15 km from the Wesseling site. Together they have a production capacity of more than 2.2 million tons of polyolefins/yr, with two crackers, four high-density PE plants, two low-density PE plants, three PP plants, and one advanced polyolefins plant. Approximately 2000 employees and 170 trainees work at Wesseling, along with 1000 contractors.

Headquartered in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, LyondellBasell is the largest regional producer and marketer of PP and PE, with production sites in six countries throughout Western and Eastern Europe. Its Advanced Polyolefins Business operates PP compounding plants in four European countries, with two advanced polyolefins plants in the Netherlands and one in Italy. LyondellBasell also operates catalyst production plants in Frankfurt and Ludwigshafen, Germany, and Ferrara, Italy. —mpweditorial@cancom.com