Biesterfeld Plastic (Hamburg / Germany; www.biesterfeld-plastic.com) is extending its long-term collaboration with BASF (Ludwigshafen / Germany; www.basf.com) by taking over distribution of the group’s polystyrene portfolio in Europe, North Africa and the CIS region. The partnership encompasses both the established PS grade “158K” and the recently commercialised PS “148HQ” produced at Ludwigshafen. Noting that the distributor has been working with BASF for some 20 years, Martin Umbach, managing director of Biesterfeld Plastic, said the two polystyrene types, “which offer consistently high product quality thanks to the uniform manufacturing process,” complement the company’s portfolio “extremely well.”

With versatile applications in numerous industries, PS 158K is characterised by heat resistance and fast solidification, which BASF said make it suitable for use in food packaging (under Commission Regulation (EU) 2016/1416) as well as in applications such as disposable tableware and packaging. The high transparency also allows the plastic to be used as a stretch wrap film. This product type is also seeing increasing use in medical equipment and laboratory supplies, for example in the manufacturing of petri dishes, beakers and lab slides.

According to the chemical and plastics group, the insulating properties of PS 148HQ make it especially suitable for the production of XPS insulation panels and impact sound insulation. In addition to applications in building insulation, where high and stable output is required, this grade is also used to manufacture consumer goods.