INEOS and Solvay have signed a definitive Joint Venture Agreement to create a leading PVC Producer to be called INOVYN.
The two companies announced their plans to join forces in May last year but it took until May this year for the European Commission to approve the proposed joint venture.
Together they will have combined sales of 4.3 billion Euros, employ about 5,650 staff in nine countries and rank among the top three producers in the world.
But first they must implement an agreed remedy package for the divestment of five INEOS-owned assets – the membrane chlorine plant and EDC/ VCM plants at Tessenderlo, Belgium, the PVC plants in Mazingarbe, France, and Beek in the Netherlands, the PVC and VCM plants at Wilhelmshaven in Germany, and the British EDC plants in Runcorn.
The Commission also wants Runcorn’s membrane chlorine plant to be placed in a joint venture between the INEOS/ Solvay joint venture and the new owner of the five affected plants.
Once all that has been done, the JV can go-ahead.
“The newly combined business, which will be of world scale, will be able to better respond to rapidly changing European markets and to match increasing competition from global producers,” said INEOS chairman Jim Ratcliffe.