BP Amoco to Restructure Styrenics Business.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)

BP AMOCO CHEMICALS WILL RESTRUCTURE its styrenics business and close its 285,000-m.t./year styrene plant at Baglan Bay, U.K. at the end of September. The company will also shutter three expandable polystyrene (EPS) units and mothball a 60,000-m.t./year PS unit at Wingles, France, replacing it with a new, 85,000-m.t./year unit.

"The business is as bloody as it has ever been. The conditions are very difficult," says Mike Buzzacott, BP Amoco group v.p./polymers. "It is one of the few occasions when we have very depressed polymer margins at the same time as weak styrene prices." BP Amoco says market conditions will be difficult for one or two more years.

The …