Officials with DuPont in Wilmington, Del., previously said that locations involved in a potential sale included Zytel nylon sites in Richmond, Va.; Hamm, Germany; and Mechelen, Belgium; Vamac elastomer production in Orange, Texas; DuPont Teijin film sites in Hopewell, Va.; Torrance, Calif.; and Bayport, Texas; and sites compounding several of these materials in Shenzhen and Zhangjiagang, China.
“We are proud of the strength of these industry-leading businesses, which we believe will be even stronger when combined with the highly complementary portfolio of Celanese,” DuPont CEO Ed Breen said in a news release.
He added that the sale “represents a significant milestone in DuPont’s transformation as a premier multi-industrial company … to further define DuPont as a market leader in the areas of electronics, water, industrial technologies, protection and next generation automotive.”
DuPont will continue to seek a separate buyer for its Delrin acetal business, according to Breen. That business has annual sales of about $550 million. “There is substantial interest in this high-quality asset,” Breen said.
Nylon is a major part of DuPont’s history. The firm began commercial production of nylon 6/6 fiber in December 1939, at a newly built plant in Seaford, Del., about 90 miles from company headquarters in Wilmington. DuPont’s work on developing nylon was led by Wallace Carothers, a legendary researcher who left the faculty of Harvard University to join DuPont in 1928.
Celanese’s total sales for 2021 were up almost 51 percent to a little more than $8.5 billion, even as the firm’s profit declined 5 percent to $1.9 billion. Celanese’s Engineered Materials unit, including acetals, posted sales of $2.7 billion, up more than 28 percent, and adjusted earnings before interest and taxes of $571 million, up more than 41 percent.
