A joint venture of Shell Nederland Chemie NV and BASF Nederland BV officially opened a new styrene monomer and propylene oxide (SM-PO) plant at Moerdijk, the Netherlands. The two companies hold equal interests in the plant, which was built at a cost of 1 billion guilders ($485 million) alongside an existing Shell SM-PO unit.
The new plant has capacity to produce 565,000 tonnes/year of styrene monomer, a 'building block' for polystyrene and high-grade resins, and 250,000 tonnes/year of propylene ox- ide, which is used to make plastic foam. Shell said linking the new plant to the existing facilities brought significant synergies to the project, which is one of the world's largest SM-PO plants.
Shell Group Managing Director Jeroen van der Veer said, "At a time when almost all news concerning Shell Chemicals is devoted to divestments-we are in the process of selling 40% of our chemicals assets-I feel excited to be present at the start of this new investment. I consider a new joint venture between two leading chemicals players like BASF and Shell a sensible means for large investments in the future."
BASF Director J. Hambrecht added, "The ever-increasing global competition forces petrochemical and chemical companies into investments which involve the most modern technology, the biggest economies of scale, and an optimal integration into a 'Verbund' site (Verbund-a German word with no direct English translation-is BASF's term for total integration). All these basic conditions are fulfilled within this SM-PO plant of Basell."
