Albis Plastics (Hamburg / Germany; www.albis.com) will take over distribution of the engineering polymer lines “Ultramid” (PA 6 and PA 6.6), “Ultradur” (PBT), “Ultraform” (POM) and “Ultrason” (PSU/PESU/PPSU) for BASF (Ludwigshafen / Germany; www.basf.com) in France and the Benelux countries on 1 January 2009. Previously, A. Schulman (Europe: Paris / France; www.aschulman.com) was the German group’s distribution partner for engineering polymers as well as styrenics in the two countries.

BASF’s decision to change partners apparently reflects the need to have a pan-European distributor who can supply globally operating customers. It is not clear how the styrenic polymers will be distributed in future. After a sale failed to materialise, the group announced that the styrenics business will be carved out internally into an independent entity in January 2009 – see Plasteurope.com of 30.10.2008.