MOSCOW (MRC) -- BASF will increase its alkoxylate capacity in Asia Pacific, with its latest investment in Jinshan, China, as per the company's press release.
The company has acquired land, buildings and assets of SPC, related to alkoxylates production, adjoining the BASF Jinshan site, in order to fulfil the growing demand from customers across Asia Pacific, especially China. With the current alkoxylate line in the Care Chemicals Jinshan plant running at full capacity, this acquisition will help double the capacity at Jinshan from end 2020.
“This investment reinforces BASF’s commitment to China and makes Jinshan a significant production base for a range of products across the Care Chemicals portfolio in the region,” said Dr. Stephan Kothrade, President and Chairman Greater China, BASF.
“Expanding production capabilities in Asia to support our customers’ growth is a key pillar of our business strategy. We see multiple positive implications with this investment in Asia, including enhancing our supply chain to serve our customers more efficiently, establishing a stronger base for our innovate-to-market approach and providing future expansion possibilities on the site,” said Dr. Rajan Venkatesh, Senior Vice President, Care Chemicals, BASF Asia Pacific.
“We are seeing a rising demand for high-quality alkoxylates in the Asia Pacific market, especially in China. This strategic expansion will double our alkoxylates capacities in Jinshan and increase our overall capacity in Asia Pacific. We will focus on maximizing synergies between the existing and new operations and supporting the growth of our customers and the market,” said Dr. Jianwen Mao, Vice President, Business Management Greater China, Home Care, Industrial & Institutional, and Industrial Formulators, Care Chemicals, BASF Asia Pacific.
Alkoxylation technology is used in the manufacture of surfactants that are employed in a wide range of industry segments, including home care, formulations for laundry detergents, surface cleaners and dishwasher detergents, personal care, industrial and institutional cleaning applications as well as industrial formulations like in raw materials for the manufacture of plasticizers, emulsifiers for emulsion polymerization, crop protection additives, and polyurethane foams for the rubber industry.
As MRC wrote before, BASF-YPC, a 50-50 joint venture of BASF and Sinopec, undertook a planned shutdown at its naphtha cracker on 30 April 2020. The company initially planned to start turnaround at the cracker on April 5, 2020. The plant remained under maintenance unitl 18 June, 2020. Located in Jiangsu, China, the cracker has an ethylene capacity of 750,000 mt/year and propylene capacity of 400,000 mt/year.
Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).
According to MRC's DataScope report, PE imports to Russia dropped in January-June 2020 by 7% year on year to 328,000 tonnes. High density polyethylene (HDPE) accounted for the main decrease in imports. At the same time, PP imports into Russia rose in the first six months of 2020 by 21% year on year to 105,300 tonnes. Propylene homopolymer (homopolymer PP) accounted for the main increase 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 EUR59 billion in 2019.
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