Huntsman Chemical Company Australia Pty Limited's origins go back to 1928 with the founding of Monsanto Southern Cross Chemical Company - a joint venture between Monsanto Limited of the UK and the Nicholas Company to manufacture acetyl salicylic acid (asprin) for "ASPRO" powders.The West Footscray plant was established in 1941. The manufacture of plastics commenced in 1943, followed by herbicides, fungicides, polystyrene and rubber chemicals in the 1950's. In 1961, the Company was involved in establishing Australia's first petrochemical plant - located in Sydney and replaced by the world-scale styrene monomer plant at West Footscray in 1977.From 1988 the Company was known as Chemplex Australia Limited and in 1993 it became Huntsman Chemical Company Australia Pty Limited, a joint venture partnership between the Huntsman Chemical Corporation (USA) and Consolidated Press Holdings Ltd.Today, HCCA produces a diverse range of products for use by Australia's primary and secondary industries. In fact, rarely a day goes past without every person in Australia using a product manufactured from a HCCA material. These include styrene monomer, polystyrene, expanded polystyrene, ABS and SAN plastics, polyester resins, phenol, acetone and phenol formaldehyde resins.In 1996, Huntsman acquired RMAX, Australia’s largest EPS moulder and in 1997, formed Polystyrene Australia, a joint venture company with Dow Australia Limited to market polystyrene.HCCA also exports petro-chemicals and plastics throughout Asia and the Southern Pacific.The Company employs more than 650 people in Australia and New Zealand.