As managing editor of Huntsman Corp. is never the same company for long -- the firm has a long history of changing its product mix, buying and selling assets to take advantage of the cyclical chemical industry. The fact that Huntsman was privately owned gave it the ability to change quickly and take advantage of bargains as other companies looked to sell out-of-favor assets -- and then sell them when the price was right.
Well, Huntsman isn't a private company anymore -- it did an initial public offering in 2005. But the Salt Lake City-based company continues to change with the times. Today, the firm announced that it is selling its U.S. Base Chemicals and Polymers business to Flint Hills Resources LLC, a subsidiary of Koch Industries Inc.
Wichita, Kan.-based Flint Hills is paying $456 million, plus the value of inventory on the date of the closing.
The deal includes Huntsman's olefins and polymers manufacturing assets in: Port Arthur, Odessa and Longview, Texas; Peru, Ill.; and Marysville, Mich. The business employs 900.
More changes are in store for the resin sector, as our Feb. 12 Viewpoint (and cartoon) illustrated. The last round of consolidation in the polyethylene, polystyrene and polypropylene markets caused big changes for processors. How will they need to adapt to the new changes?