Celanese announces sale of its atmospheric emulsions unit in Tarragona, spain to IQOXE

DALLAS – Celanese Corporation (NYSE: CE), a global technology and specialty materials company, today announced that it has successfully concluded the sale of its atmospheric (vinyl and acrylics) emulsions unit in La Canonja (Tarragona), Spain. Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed.

IQOXE, a Tarragona-based petrochemical company specializing in the production of ethylene oxide, glycols and ethylene oxide derivatives, is acquiring the operation from Celanese of the 25,000mt nameplate production capacity atmospheric emulsions unit with 29 employees. Under a multi-year agreement, the buyer will produce certain emulsions products for which Celanese will continue to remain the channel to market for Mowilith® and Celvolit® atmospheric emulsions.

Celanese launched the sale process for both its atmospheric and VAE (vinyl acetate-ethylene) emulsions production units in Tarragona in March 2015, with the intent to find a credible buyer for both facilities. The sale intention was driven by a review of Celanese’s overall corporate strategy, which also included an assessment of the company’s global manufacturing facilities. In support of the company’s emulsion polymers business, the manufacturing footprint strategy favors integrated production sites that provide critical economies of scale.

Celanese placed great effort in identifying credible buyers that could ensure sustainable operations, retain employees and meet the financial criteria defined by the company to ensure successful future operations for both emulsions units in Tarragona. However, no credible buyer was found for the VAE emulsions production unit; therefore, Celanese also announces today the closure of the VAE unit. The consultation process has been concluded with local employee representatives to mitigate the social impact of this closure on the impacted employees. Production at the VAE unit ceased at the end of October.

Celanese will continue to supply its VAE emulsions customers from the company’s European emulsions production network.