BASF secures alternative raw material supply for polyamide 6.6 business

* BASF and INVISTA enter into ADN supply agreement

* Proposed closure of ADN plant at Seal Sands in early 2009




BASF announced today that it has secured an alternative raw material supply for its strategically important polyamide business. BASF will purchase adipodinitrile (ADN) from the global network of U.S.-based company INVISTA. ADN is used as a raw material to produce hexamethylenediamine (HMD) at BASF’s Seal Sands site, Teesside, U.K. HMD is a key intermediate for BASF’s Ultramid® A (Polyamide 6.6).

Supply from INVISTA will commence at the start of 2009, and once a reliable delivery has been established, BASF aims to close and dismantle its ADN plant in Seals Sands. Both companies will ensure that customers are not affected by the raw material supply changes.

“This decision is necessary to ensure a more cost-competitive supply of ADN in the future. This step also underlines our clear commitment to the polyamide value chain and our focus on the fast growing engineering plastics market,“ said Dr. Harald Lauke, President of BASF Performance Polymers Division.

“We expect that approximately 30 BASF employees will be affected by the proposed plant closure. We will evaluate the impact on service providers supporting the plant and discuss this with the companies involved. BASF envisages closing the ADN plant without compulsory redundancies,” said Bernd Brian, Site Director at the Seal Sands site. “We will continue to produce the intermediates HMD and acrylonitrile as basic raw materials for the BASF group”, he added.

In addition to ADN and HMD, BASF operates a number of chemical plants at its Seal Sands site and has approximately 200 employees and about the same number of contractors.

BASF is producing Ultramid® A (Polyamide 6.6) from the key intermediates HMD and adipic acid at its site in Ludwigshafen, Germany. In addition, BASF operates fully backward-integrated production plants for Polyamide 6 (Ultramid® B) at its Verbund sites in Ludwigshafen, Antwerp, Belgium and Freeport, USA. Ultramid® A and B are used to produce engineering plastics which go into the automotive, electric&electronics, furniture and leisure industries. In addition, Polyamide 6 and 6.6 are used to produce fibers for textile, carpet and industrial applications.