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Ineos-Nova Acquiring Sterling Styrene Production

Joint venture between Nova Chemicals and Ineos is slated to begin Oct. 1.

PITTSBURGH, Pa. (CP) — Nova Chemicals Corp., a major Canadian-American commodity chemicals producer, says it has acquired the exclusive rights to the styrene production from Sterling Chemicals Inc.'s Texas City, Texas, manufacturing plant for Nova's pending joint venture with Ineos, a global chemicals company.
 
The joint venture is slated to begin operations by Oct. 1, Nova said in a release late Tuesday.
 
The $60 million cost of the Sterling transaction will be fully funded by the Ineos-Nova joint venture from cash on hand.
 
''This agreement will allow our joint venture with Ineos to rapidly reduce costs and optimize production,'' said Jeff Lipton, president and chief executive of Nova Chemicals. ''We believe this is a very significant step that will accelerate a return to financial health for the styrenics chain.''
 
Sterling's Texas City plant has 1.7 billion pounds of annual styrene production capacity, which represents approximately 11 percent of North American capacity and three percent of global capacity for the product, used to make foam cups and plates and numerous other consumer products.
 
Nova Chemicals produces plastics and chemicals used in a wide variety of consumer products. In Canada, the company has major operations in Alberta and southwestern Ontario.
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