BASF plans to invest in a polyurethanes specialties site in Shanghai

01-Sep-2004

BASF is expanding its polyurethanes activities in Asia with a planned investment in a new specialties site in Pudong, Shanghai. Polyurethanes specialties tailored to the requirements of Chinese customers are to be produced in Pudong from early 2007 onward. Approval for the project is currently being sought from the authorities in Shanghai. Construction is planned to start next year.

The project will comprise a polyurethane system house, a Technical Research & Development Center and a production plant for thermoplastic polyurethanes (TPU). These activities will be integrated in one company, BASF Polyurethanes Specialties (China) Co. Ltd. The new site will use the cost advantages provided by the regional Production Verbund for polyurethane: MDI (diphenylmethane diisocyanate) and TDI (toluene diisocyanate) - basic materials needed to produce specialties in Pudong - will be supplied from Caojing, Shanghai. Here, BASF and its partners are planning to start up a world-scale production plant for these isocyanates in 2006.

Basic products and specialties from a single source

"Following the investment in MDI and TDI we are now taking the logical second step to further expand our position in polyurethanes in the Chinese market," said Jean-Pierre Dhanis, President of BASF's Polyurethanes division. "In the future, we will be able to supply our customers in the region with locally produced polyurethane basic products and specialties from a single source. In addition, we will offer our customers individual service packages in the area of polyurethane specialties," he continued. The planned system house will, for example, produce special polyurethane formulations developed in close collaboration with customers from a variety of industries. In Nansha, south China, BASF has been operating a system house since 1999. Globally, BASF operates 27 system houses, five of them in Asia.

In the coming 10 years, the Chinese polyurethanes market is expected to grow by about 10 percent per year and is likely to become the world's largest market by 2015. In particular, product innovations will contribute to this above-average growth. "At our new regional Technical R&D Center we will realize innovative approaches from the Asian markets in a much shorter time," said Chew Eng Soo, Group Vice President Polyurethanes Asia Pacific at BASF.

The new Technical Research & Development Center in Pudong will liaise closely with the existing development centers in Taiwan, Korea, Japan and North America as well as with the German sites Ludwigshafen and Lemförde, which are acting as the global BASF polyurethane research centers. This will ensure that BASF has a powerful global network for research and innovation in the field of polyurethanes.

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