Ineos Styrolution, part of the United Kingdom-based multinational chemicals group Ineos, has acquired two polystyrene production sites in China from French energy giant Total SA.
The acquisition includes the purchase of Total's wholly owned Chinese PS business, which comprises two production sites in Ningbo and Foshan and two related offices in Guangzhou and Shanghai.
Driven by the company's “triple shift” strategy, the transaction signals Ineos Styrolution's first production move into China and will increase the company's PS capacity by 400 kilotonnes per year.
Both sites, in Foshan, Guangdong province in South China and Ningbo, in the Zhejiang province south of Shanghai, have an annual nameplate capacity of 200 kilotonnes per year.
Ineos Styrolution's triple shift strategy is aimed at arriving at “a resilient, less cyclical, more diversified and more profitable business by 2020.”
The blueprint targets three areas of ‘higher-growth customer industries, higher value offerings and high-growth regions' for future development.
“Ineos Styrolution continues to grow its footprint in the Asian market,” said Kevin McQuade, CEO Ineos Styrolution, referring to another acquisition by the company in South Korea last year. “Not only does this move allow us to significantly increase our presence in a region with growing demand for polystyrene, it also enables us to provide customers in our core industries with locally produced best-in-class materials.”
Ineos Styrolution acquired the K-resin styrene-butadiene copolymers (SBC) business from Chevron Phillips Chemical and Daelim Industrial Co. Ltd in Yeosu Petrochemical Complex in South Korea last March.
Also commenting on the purchase, Steve Harrington, president Asia Pacific and global styrene monomer, said the acquisition was an “important milestone” for both Ineos Styrolution and the Ineos Group as it represented the company's first manufacturing assets in China.
The deal, signed Sept. 1, is subject to approval by the regulatory authorities.