W.R. Grace to acquire the polyolefin catalyst business of BASF
Germany: BASF, a Germany based chemicals and specialty plastics
manufacturer, recently announced to sell its global polyolefin catalyst
business to W.R. Grace. As per the agreement signed on 22 April 2015, the
transaction is expected to complete by the third quarter of 2016. The deal is
expected to include the transfer of BASF’s technologies, patents, trademarks
and manufacturing facility located at Pasadena in Texas and Tarragona in Spain
to W.R. Grace. In addition, 170 BASF employees would also be transferred to
Grace globally. BASF is a leading producer of polyethylene and polypropylene
resins using Lynx-brand catalyst technologies which are extensively used in bimodal
film and pipe. The BASF’s PP catalyst are used in PP process technologies for
production of fluid gas, bulk loop, slurry, stirred gas, and stirred bulk.
TechSci depicts that this transaction is expected to help
W.R. Grace to enrich its existing portfolio for polyolefin catalyst
technologies. The acquisition of polyolefin catalyst business would also help
the company to increase their product offerings in the market globally.
According to TechSci Research
report, “India PET and PBT Resins Market Forecast and Opportunities,
2020”, the PET & PBT resins market in India is expected to surpass USD1.9
billion in 2015. PET and PBT resins are used for
manufacturing plastic and plastic components, which have wide applications in
bottling, textile, electronics and automobile industry. India’s PET market
continues to be dominated by PET bottles, followed by PET films, sheets and
chips, and the trend is expected to continue over the next five years. PET
bottles are being increasing used for packaging of bottled drinking water,
carbonated soft drinks, edible oils, juices, alcoholic beverages, etc.