US chemical producer Ashland (Dublin, Ohio; www.ashland.com) has reached a definitive agreement to sell its maleic anhydride business and manufacturing facility at Neal, West Virginia / USA to AOC Materials (Collierville, Tennessee / USA; www.aoc-resins.com) for USD 100m. The transaction is expected to close by the end of this year. The chemical used in large-scale coatings and polymer applications, in particular as a feedstock for unsaturated polyester resins, had been excluded from the transfer of Ashland’s composites business and its butanediol (BDO) facility at Marl / Germany to Ineos (London / UK; www.ineos.com – see Plasteurope.com of 05.09.2019).

Guillermo Novo, Ashland’s chairman and CEO, said the divestment of its maleic anhydride assets is part of the company’s drive to streamline its portfolio and focus on speciality ingredients and improved margins. Joe Salley, CEO of AOC, said his company will produce the chemical both for internal consumption and the merchant market. Ashland reacquired the West Virginia plant with a then-capacity of 40,000-45,000 t/y in 2010 from its erstwhile partner Marathon Petroleum (Findlay, Ohio / USA – see Plasteurope.com of 13.01.2011).

In other maleic anhydride production news, the Polynt-Reichhold group has announced plans to build a facility in the US (see Plasteurope.com of 03.08.2020).