At the beginning of December 2018, as has only just become known, Belgian distributor and compounder Ravago (Arendonk; www.ravago.com) completed its acquisition of the European insulation material business of DowDuPont (Midland, Michigan / USA; www.dow-dupont.com) – see Plasteurope.com of 19.07.2018. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Seven production facilities for expandable polystyrene (XPS) traditionally sold under the Dow trademark “Styrofoam” changed hands. DowDuPont said the divestment reduced sales of its Safety and Construction division by 1% in full-year 2018.

Ravago has picked up one plant each at Drusenheim / France, Lavrion / Greece, Norrköping / Sweden, Dilovasi / Turkey and King's Lynn / UK along with two German facilities at Rheinmünster and Schkopau. The Belgian group with annual sales of around EUR 7.5 bn and more than 6,000 employees has had a long relationship with Dow Chemical. As well as distributing the XPS portfolio in Europe, its subsidiary RP Compounds (Schkopau; www.rpcompounds.de) bought Dow’s former EPS plant at the east German site in 2013 – see Plasteurope.com of 04.10.2013.