Engineering plastics expansion

,

, announced today that it will acquire the major North American engineering plastics business of LATI

, the

affiliate of the Italian plastics manufacturer

. Financial details were not disclosed.

The transaction involves customer lists for polyamide 6, polyamide 6,6, polybutylene terephthalate (PBT), and polyoxymethylene (POM) in North America. Annual sales volumes are in the low double-digit million dollar range. The acquisition is not associated with the transfer of production sites or personnel.

BASF says today’s acquisition is its fourth in the field of engineering plastics in the last three years. Effective November this year, BASF acquired the German company Leuna-Miramid. In 2003, BASF acquired and integrated Honeywell’s global engineering plastics business, as well as Ticona’s polyamide 6,6 business.

Parallel to the acquisitions, BASF is also investing to expand its global production facilities. As announced in February 2005, a compounding plant for engineering plastics is currently being built in Shanghai, China. The expansion of an existing compounding plant in Pasir Gudang, Malaysia, was completed in mid-2005. A joint venture with Toray to produce PBT in Kuantan, Malaysia, is scheduled to start production at the beginning of 2006.