Ineos has agreed to purchase the Seal Sands site on Teesside from German chemical giant BASF. The acquisition is being made by Ineos Nitriles and is conditional on approval from the relevant antitrust authority.
At the Seal Sands site, large-scale production facilities manufacture acrylonitrile (AN), adipodinitrile (ADN) and hexamethylenediamine (HMD), along with by-products.
These chemical intermediates are used in the production of acrylic and polyamide (PA) fibres for clothing and carpets, as well as for acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) and PA plastics for the automotive, electric and electronics and domestic appliance industries.
The acrylonitrile plant at Seal Sands currently produces around 230,000 tonnes per annum with the majority of product being used to supply three BASF downstream businesses, located at Antwerp in Belgium, Seal Sands in the UK and Ludwigshafen in Germany.
The Seal Sands acrylonitrile plant will serve the existing Ineos acetonitrile plant located at the Seal Sands facility, which currently upgrades and sells the by-product received from the plant.
BASF has around 240 employees at the site. Once the deal is finalised, these employees will transfer to Ineos Nitriles. Ineos Nitriles will also take over all existing supply and service arrangements.
The value of the deal between the two companies was not disclosed.
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