MOSCOW (MRC) -- BASF says it has acquired the worldwide distribution rights for Ventraco's (Amsterdam, Netherlands) rejuvenator products that enable complete recycling of old asphalt, branded RheoFalt, said Chemweek.
The agreement excludes Belgium, Luxembourg, and The Netherlands, where Ventraco will continue to supply the products, BASF says.
Road construction is growing worldwide alongside increased mobility, and the demand for new roads is accompanied by the need to renew existing pavement due to binder aging and compromised crack resistance on the surface, the company says. If the old asphalt is not recycled, the result is large quantities of waste, it says.
"Many roads will have to be renewed in the next few years. We estimate that the market volume worldwide and especially in the region of EMEA will increase sharply in the near future,” says Mario Sandor, head/business management, asphalt performance at BASF. The agreement makes it possible for “us to offer a sustainable solution for road construction and to meet these growing needs," Sandor adds.
As MRC reported earlier, BASF-YPC undertook a planned shutdown at its polystyrene (PS) unit in China on May 5, 2020. The unit restarted on June 20, 2020. Located in Jiangsu, China, the PS unit a production capacity of 200,000 mt/year.
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated consumption of PS and styrene plastics was 225,870 tonnes in the first half of 2020, down by 8% year on year. PS consumption increased by 2% year on year in June 2020, totalling 39,590 tonnes.
BASF-YPC Company Limited (BASF-YPC) is a 50-50 joint venture between BASF and Sinopec, founded in 2000, with a total investment of approximately USD5.5 billion. The integrated petrochemical site produces about three million tons of high-quality chemicals and polymers for the Chinese market annually. The products serve the rapid-growing demand in multiple industries, including agriculture, construction, electronics, pharmaceutical, hygiene, automotive and chemical manufacturing. All BASF-YPC plants are interconnected in order to use products, by-products and energy in the most efficient way, to save cost and to minimize the environmental impact. BASF-YPC posted sales of approximately CNY 19.6 billion in 2019 and employed 1,942 people as of the end of the year.
MRC