But over in Europe, the message is mixed. DSM for starters is in, but it appears that Bayer is heading for the door, focusing instead on its pharma and ag-chem businesses. That was somewhat surprising to me as Bayer is not a player in the Big 6 commodity plastics, but instead in polyurethanes and polycarbonates, materials that have higher margins associated with them. Bayer's plastics business is worth over $10 billion, so it's a pretty sizable company on it's own, or for someone to buy in its entirety.
Regardless, its not as though this plastics business is going away, anymore than when GE sold its plastics business off to Sabic. It just going to take a while for this old chemist to associate the Bayer tradenames (Desmodur, Makroblend, Bayflex...) with a new company.
[*] The cynical side of me interprets "the foreseeable future" as Wall Street does - the next quarter.
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