MOSCOW (MRC) -- Dutch material supplier Royal DSM is selling its advanced solar business in backsheet products to Worthen Industries Inc., a Nashua, N.H.-based company specializing in polymer technologies for multiple end-markets, said Canplastics.
The financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed. In September 2020, DSM announced it had reached an agreement to sell the coatings business of DSM advanced solar to Covestro AG as part of a broader agreement to sell the resins and functional materials business, including DSM Niaga and DSM additive manufacturing.
“For the remaining solar business, an agreement has now been reached with Worthen Industries that will create a global business which benefits from complementary innovation and enhanced production capability,” DSM officials said in a March 12 statement.
"The acquisition of DSM’s business in backsheets and conductive backsheets, along with its excellent team, is a strong next step in Worthen’s strategy to serve the global PV [photovoltaic] industry with sustainable, high-performance solutions that are VOC-free, zero-waste, and 100 per cent recyclable – enabling a greener, better-performing industry worldwide," David Worthen, CEO at Worthen Industries, said.
Completion of the transaction is expected mid-2021.
As MRC informed earlier, DSM formed a 50/50 joint venture (JV) with VDL Groep (Eindhoven, Netherlands), called Dutch PPE Solutions, to produce medical facemasks and establish the first permanent production of critical facemask components in the Netherlands. The companies are investing several million euros to purchase manufacturing equipment and build manufacturing facilities to produce meltblown polypropylene (PP), the critical material layer in medical facemasks that filters viruses, and make medical masks.
Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 241,030 tonnes in January 2021 versus 217,890 tonnes a year earlier. Only shipments of low density polyethylene (LDPE) and high density polyethylene (HDPE) increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market reached 141,870 tonnes in January 2021 versus 123,520 tonnes a year earlier. Supply of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers increased.
Royal DSM, commonly known as DSM, is a Dutch multinational corporation active in the fields of health, nutrition and materials. The Materials cluster is made up of DSM Engineering Materials, DSM Protective Materials and DSM Resins & Functional Materials. DSM Engineering Materials’ specialty plastics are used in components for the electrical and electronics, automotive, flexible food packaging and consumer goods industries.
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