Polyethylene giants Dow Chemical Co. and ExxonMobil Chemical Co. have decided to dissolve their PE catalyst joint venture with Dow taking over Univation Technologies LLC.
Univation licenses Unipol PE production technology and produces catalysts for the polymerization technology. Unipol is applied in about a quarter of global PE production spanning some 100 reactors in 25 countries.
Originally formed in 1997 as a venture between Exxon Chemical Co. and Unipol developer Union Carbide Corp., Univation became a 50-50 joint venture between Dow and Exxon in 2001 when Dow acquired Union Carbide. By the end of the year, Univation should be part of Dow's Performance Plastics business.
Univation will remain committed to serving customers, noted Univation President Cindy Shulman in an Oct. 2 news release. Dow noted Univation is a valuable, high-margin business.
Univation's polymerization offerings will continue to include Unipol swing capability allowing PE resin producers to switch between linear low density PE and high density PE. Univation will continue to develop and supply polymerization catalysts such as Ucat for conventional production, Acclaim for advanced unimodal PE, Xcat for metallocene PE and Prodigy for bimodal PE.
In a separate Oct. 2 announcement, Dow named non-strategic businesses it is actively marketing for divestment. By the end of 2014, it expects to sell nitroalkanes producer Angus Chemical Co., fresh produce technology supplier AgroFresh, and its sodium borohydride business. It recently sold a big chunk of its North American rail car fleet. Dow confirmed it also plans to exit chloralkali and related production on the U.S. Gulf Coast and its epoxy business and hopes to have sales agreements signed for these units in early 2015.
