MOSCOW (MRC) -- BASF Corp., the North American affiliate of German chemical maker BASF SE, has begun producing hand sanitizer from two of its plants in the U.S. to help meet the increased demands needed to safely combat the COVID-19 pandemic, said Canplastics.
The company is providing the states of New Jersey and New York with hand sanitizer manufactured at its facility in Washington, N.J. free of charge. BASF said that it does not regularly produce hand sanitizer at its New Jersey location, but a team of BASF scientists and engineers worked on a compressed timeline to develop a safe and high-quality product.
The New Jersey plant is the first BASF location in the U.S. to supply hand sanitizer. The facility will produce approximately 3,500 gallons of hand sanitizer to be distributed to health care systems and government agencies in New Jersey and New York, and other BASF locations in the U.S.
And the BASF Corp. site in Wyandotte, Mich. has created and produced a hand sanitizer, HandClasp, with the first 1,000 gallons in the U.S. donated to the Henry Ford Health System.
The Wyandotte facility is home to one of BASF’s largest research and development centres and manufacturing sites in North America with more than 1,200 employees. As at the Washington, N.J. site, BASF does not regularly produce hand sanitizer at the Wyandotte location, however the facility received authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to temporarily produce a safe and high-quality sanitizing product. The facility has produced over 8,000 gallons of hand sanitizer being distributed to the Henry Ford Health System, and other health care systems in Michigan, Texas, Louisiana, Mexico and Canada, as well as other BASF locations in the U.S.
As MRC wrote earlier, BASF, the world's petrochemical major, has restarted its No. 1 steam cracker following a maintenance turnaorund. Thus, the company resumed operations at the plant on September 30, 2019. The plant was shut for maintenance in mid-August, 2019. Located at Ludwigshafen in Germany, the No. 1 cracker has an ethylene production capacity of 235,000 mt/year and a propylene production capacity of 125,000 mt/year.
Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing PE and polypropylene (PP).
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 383,760 tonnes in the first two month of 2020, up by 14% year on year. High density polyethylene (HDPE) and linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) shipments increased due to the increased capacity utilisation at ZapSibNeftekhim. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 192,760 tonnes in January-February 2020, down by 6% year on year. Homopolymer PP accounted for the main decrease in imports.
BASF is the leading chemical company. It produces a wide range of chemicals, for example solvents, amines, resins, glues, electronic-grade chemicals, industrial gases, basic petrochemicals and inorganic chemicals. The most important customers for this segment are the pharmaceutical, construction, textile and automotive industries. BASF generated sales of around EUR63 billion in 2018.
MRC