Wilmington, DE, August 30, 2002 – Chuck Platz, president of Basell North America, today affirmed Basell’s commitment to implement a 3 cents per pound price increase on Basell’s polypropylene products in North America. The increase, announced to customers earlier this month, is effective September 1.

"We need to re-establish an acceptable level of profitability for Basell’s polypropylene products so that our customers continue to benefit from this versatile and cost-effective thermoplastic," Platz said. "The full implementation of this price increase is an important and necessary step."

This year, total North American demand for polypropylene through July has grown by more than 10% over 2001 and industry capacity utilization rates have climbed above 92%. In 2001 and 2002, North American PP manufacturers have retired over 1.6 billion pounds – or about 10% -- of the region’s capacity. This includes the 440 million pounds of capacity that Basell has temporarily shut down in Bayport, Texas but will return to production in the future.

Platz said Basell’s monomer costs have increased by more than 33% since the beginning of the year. "Our efforts to increase prices during the first half of 2002 were offset by the continuing run-up in raw material costs, resulting in no improvement in profitability, and we are still working to stabilize our business," Platz said. "There is a promising future ahead for polypropylene in terms of improved performance and cost effectiveness that will improve our customers’ profitability. Even in these challenging times, we are pushing these exciting new developments to commercial reality as quickly as possible."

Basell develops, produces and markets polypropylene, polyethylene, advanced polyolefin materials and polyolefin catalysts, and also develops and licenses polyolefin processes. Basell's corporate center is located in Hoofddorp, The Netherlands; the company has regional offices in Wilmington, Delaware; Brussels, Belgium; Mainz, Germany; Sao Paulo, Brazil, and Hong Kong, as well as manufacturing facilities and sales offices in the major markets around the globe. Basell’s Internet address is www.basell.com.

For additional information contact Nick Nagurny of Basell’s Corporate Communications Department at +1 302 996 6122 or nick.nagurny@basell.com.