BASF and Toray start up PBT plant in Kuantan, Malaysia
50-50 joint venture between BASF and Toray
Toray BASF PBT Resin Sdn. Bhd., a 50-50 joint venture between BASF Aktiengesellschaft, Germany, and Toray Industries Inc., Japan, has successfully started commercial production on schedule at its newly built world-scale polybutylene terephthalate (PBT) plant at BASF's Verbund site in Kuantan, Malaysia.
The PBT plant has an annual capacity of 60,000 metric tons and involved capital expenditure of approximately $40 million. The PBT base resin will be independently marketed by each company under their own trade names (BASF: Ultradur®, Toray: Toraycon®).
The new plant will be operated using the most advanced polymerization technology from Toray. For BASF the location of this PBT plant in the growing chemical cluster in Kuantan provides important forward integration into value-added products. The raw material, butanediol (BDO), will be procured based on state-of-the-art technology from its subsidiary BASF PETRONAS Chemicals, which is located next to the plant.
Polybutylene terephthalate is a thermoplastic polyester. Characteristic properties of this engineering plastic are great stiffness, exceptional resistance to weathering, heat distortion strength and dimensional stability. Additional features include good electrical insulating properties and resistance to chemicals.
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