German Company’s Plans to Sell Plant in Anaheim Fall Through : Dispute: BASF says its adhesives business won’t be acquired by Hexcel because of a disagreement on value.

ANAHEIM — A German conglomerate’s plans to sell its adhesive fibers plant here were canceled Wednesday in a dispute over the value of the 270-employee unit.

Officials of BASF Corp. in New Jersey said the company will continue operating the plant at 1440 N. Kraemer Blvd. In August, BASF had announced an agreement to sell its worldwide structural adhesives business to Hexcel Corp., a chemical manufacturer based in the Northern California community of Dublin, near San Francisco.

BASF Corp. is the North American arm of Germany’s huge BASF A.G., an international chemicals, pharmaceuticals and consumer products manufacturer.

Terms of the initial purchase agreement were never revealed, but it appears from Wednesday’s announcement that Hexcel officials think the value of the adhesives business has shrunk in the ensuing eight months.

Officials at Hexcel did not respond to a request for comment.

In its statement Wednesday, BASF Corp. said the purchase talks were “terminated as a result of failure to agree on financial terms.”

In August, Hexcel officials said that BASF’s adhesives unit, consisting of the Anaheim plant, several facilities in Germany and a carbon fiber factory in North Carolina that will be closed later this year, accounted for only about $50 million--or 1%--of BASF Corp.’s 1991 annual sales of $5 billion.

BASF Corp. has three other facilities in Orange County: a polymer manufacturing plant in Orange, a resins plant in Santa Ana and a warehouse in Buena Park.