Ineos Compounds, part of the Ineos group (Rolle / Switzerland; www.ineos.com) and Doeflex Compounding (Swindon / UK; www.doeflex.co.uk) have announced plans to combine their PVC compounding businesses into a one-stop shop for products across the joint portfolio. The prospective partners said the aim is to be “better positioned to meet the needs of European customers in the rapidly changing markets and highly challenging economic environment.”

While not revealing where operations would be headquartered, Ineos and Doeflex said an “integrated management team” would run the business.

Established more than 60 years ago, Doeflex Compounding is an independent PVC compounder with a portfolio of nearly 10,000 different compounds in both rigid and flexible PVC. All production facilities – said to have nameplate capacities of 30-40,000 t/y – are at Swindon. The company was once part of British Vita.

Ineos’ compounding business operates from three sites in the UK, Switzerland and Sweden, supplying specialised formulations of both rigid and flexible PVC compounds predominantly for the construction and medical supplies sectors across Europe. Plasteurope.com's Polyglobe capacity database (www.polyglobe.net) shows that overall PVC compounding capacity stands at 200,000 t/y.

The proposed merger is subject to completion of the planned 50:50 PVC joint venture of Ineos and Solvay (Brussels / Belgium; www.solvay.com), due in the fourth quarter of this year – see Plasteurope.com of 13.05.2014. After an in-depth investigation, the EU Commission recently gave the green light to the merger, but now must approve this additional component. Speaking to PIE, a Doeflex spokesman said he expects approval to be forthcoming within three to four months.