Ludwigshafen, Germany-based BASF SE will sell its Styrodur business and brand of extruded polystyrene (XPS) insulation materials to Karl Bachl Kunststoffverarbeitung GmbH & Co. KG, which is another German insulation material manufacturer and a BASF distribution partner.
The parties have agreed to keep the financial terms confidential.
BASF began producing Styrodur in 1964 and billed it as a green product because of its insulating properties at reduced energy costs. It's also water resistant and has high compressive strength.
About 50 employees involved in Styrodur production, marketing and sales will remain with BASF, which is turning more of its attention to expandable polystyrene (EPS), according to a news release.
"With the sale of the Styrodur business, BASF is consistently focusing its strategy on expandable polystyrene with our well-known brands Neopor and Styropor," said Klaus Ries, BASF's head of business management Styrenics Europe.
Expandable polystyrene (EPS) is produced from solid PS beads in a gas expansion process that forms thick but light products for walls, floors and roofs as well as food packaging, helmets and chairs.
XPS is extruded from solid PS crystals, which form denser products for construction, refrigeration and residential and commercial insulation.
The sale of BASF's Styrodur business and brand to Bachl is expected to be completed by mid-2025 subject to approvals from relevant authorities.
"We are convinced that Bachl's experience and expertise in the XPS market will provide an optimal path into the future for the Styrodur brand and that the agreement reached will further strengthen our partnership," Ries said.
Meanwhile, BASF will expand Neopor production capacity in Ludwigshafen. The company announced in October 2024 the facility will ramp up from 50,000 tons annually to 250,000 tons starting in early 2027.
BASF calls Neopor a next-generation insulation and says it not only slows the movement of heat as the temperature decreases, it increases in R-value as the temperature outside drops.
Neopor is a graphite polystyrene (GPS) rigid foam insulation comprised of many small pockets of air within a plastic matrix containing graphite. BASF says the graphite reflects radiant heat energy like a mirror, which increases the material's resistance to the flow of heat, or R-value.
BASF's other area of EPS focus will be on Styropor, which since its launch in 1951 has become a common raw materials in the construction and packaging markets.