Basell polypropylene capacity of 260,000tpa plant to close

Basell is to shut its 260,000tpa LIPP polypropylene plant at Pernis, in the Netherlands, by the middle of next year, the polyolefins group announced yesterday. Werner Breuers, president of Basell Polyolefins Europe, said the company aims to focus on world scale plants using its own Spheripol or Spherizone technologies.

“There will be no disruption for our customers currently supplied by the Pernis plant. We have enough PP capacity in the European region to fulfil the needs of our customers going forward even with the closure of Pernis,” he said. Pernis is mainly operated by Shell employees with some Basell staff at the site. Overall, Basell has approaching 7 million tpa of polypropylene capacity worldwide including joint ventures with nearly 3 million tpa in Europe.