Arkema has complete the sale of its Functional Polyolefins business to SK Global Chemical as previously announced. This is said to be in line with the company’s strategy of refocusing on speciality materials by 2024, as is another new deal with integrated agricultural company Nutrien in the US.

Functional Polyolefins was part of Arkema’s PMMA activity, making ethylene copolymers and terpolymers for the food packaging, cable, electronics and coatings markets. It had sales of about €250 million/year, an and 130 employees, all of whom will transfer to SK.

Arkema has announced that it has brought a new 90,000 tonnes/year acrylic acid reactor at its site in Clear Lake, Texas, at a cost of about $90 million. This replaces two 45,000 tonnes/year reactors, which have been decommissioned.