VESTOLEN
Veba polyolefins business sold to DSM / New world-scale plants for PP and PE
As consolidation in the European polyolefins sector proceeds, the long expected sale of the Veba group's (Düsseldorf) PE and PP production activities to DSM (PO Box 6500, NL-6401 JH Heerlen) was announced on 22 July. The deal allows Veba Oel AG (Alexander-von-Humboldt-Str., D-45896 Gelsenkirchen) to unload the unprofitable plants (150,000 t/y of PE and 200,000 t/y of PP) of subsidiary Vestolen GmbH in exchange for long-term supply of feedstock to the Dutch group.
No price tag has been placed on the complex transaction, which is subject to approval by German and Eurpean cartel authorities. The plastics activities, which employ 550 and had sales of DEM 400m in 1996, were transferred to Veba Oel from sister company Hüls AG (D-45764 Marl) in 1994. They will be integrated respectively into DSM subsidiaries DSM Polyethylenes and DSM Performance Polymers (both NL-6310 AA Sittard).
DSM has announced a NLG 1 bn expansion project for its polyolefins business and the Veba Gelsenkirchen site "over the next several years." A 300,000 t/y gas-phase LLDPE plant and a 250,000 t/y gas-phase PP plant are planned, raising DSM's global capacity for PE to 1.5m t/y from currently 1m t/y and for PP to more than 1m t/y from 550,000 t/y by the year 2000.
Despite Gelsenkirchen's relatively small scale, DSM chairman Simon de Bree stressed that with realignment and expansion, Vestolen could be made comparable with the group's well-integrated production site at Geleen in The Netherlands, where it already has a "favourable cost structure" but little room for expansion.
Starting in the year 2000, Veba Oel will supply DSM with 340,000 t/y of ethylene and 375,000 t/y of propylene. To meet the new requirements, Ruhr Oel, the joint venture between Veba and Petróleos de Venezuela, will increase output of ethylene by 100,00 t/y and propylene by 55,000 t/y at a cost of DEM 100m. Gelsenkirchen and Geleen are linked by the ARG ethyene pipeline grid.
After completing the expansion in 2001, DSM said it will be one of the leading European polyolefins players "with the lowest possible costs, a broad portfolio and world-scale technological capabilities." It currently claims a market share of 10% in PE and 7% in PP, with combined sales of NLG 2.5 bn.
READER SERVICE: Detailed press information from DSM (in English, including data on the European polyolefins market). Press statement from Veba Oel (German): PIE-No. 41229.
No price tag has been placed on the complex transaction, which is subject to approval by German and Eurpean cartel authorities. The plastics activities, which employ 550 and had sales of DEM 400m in 1996, were transferred to Veba Oel from sister company Hüls AG (D-45764 Marl) in 1994. They will be integrated respectively into DSM subsidiaries DSM Polyethylenes and DSM Performance Polymers (both NL-6310 AA Sittard).
DSM has announced a NLG 1 bn expansion project for its polyolefins business and the Veba Gelsenkirchen site "over the next several years." A 300,000 t/y gas-phase LLDPE plant and a 250,000 t/y gas-phase PP plant are planned, raising DSM's global capacity for PE to 1.5m t/y from currently 1m t/y and for PP to more than 1m t/y from 550,000 t/y by the year 2000.
Despite Gelsenkirchen's relatively small scale, DSM chairman Simon de Bree stressed that with realignment and expansion, Vestolen could be made comparable with the group's well-integrated production site at Geleen in The Netherlands, where it already has a "favourable cost structure" but little room for expansion.
Starting in the year 2000, Veba Oel will supply DSM with 340,000 t/y of ethylene and 375,000 t/y of propylene. To meet the new requirements, Ruhr Oel, the joint venture between Veba and Petróleos de Venezuela, will increase output of ethylene by 100,00 t/y and propylene by 55,000 t/y at a cost of DEM 100m. Gelsenkirchen and Geleen are linked by the ARG ethyene pipeline grid.
After completing the expansion in 2001, DSM said it will be one of the leading European polyolefins players "with the lowest possible costs, a broad portfolio and world-scale technological capabilities." It currently claims a market share of 10% in PE and 7% in PP, with combined sales of NLG 2.5 bn.
READER SERVICE: Detailed press information from DSM (in English, including data on the European polyolefins market). Press statement from Veba Oel (German): PIE-No. 41229.
31.07.1997 Plasteurope.com [19242]
Published on 31.07.1997