The expansion will involve a capital expenditure in the double digit million euro range. Over 50 new jobs will be created. “BASF is committed to the Chinese engineering plastics market, which we believe offers significant growth opportunities and we have taken the necessary strategic actions in order to expand our market position,” said Hermann Althoff, Senior Vice President of BASF’s engineering plastics unit in Asia Pacific. “This reaffirms our dedication to being our customers’ supplier of choice for engineering plastics.“In recent years, we have successfully developed many new applications for our customers in China especially in the automotive and electrical/electronics industries. We are convinced that we will continue to drive this trend,” he continued.
In 2010 the Asian consumption of polyamide and PBT compounds was over 900,000 metric tons – China accounted for 50% of this. In the next five years the engineering plastics market in Asia is expected to grow at about 8% per annum. This growth is driven by the increasing usage of engineering plastics in different industry segments, especially automobiles, where Engineering Plastics are an integral part of complex, high-value, high-performance automotive systems and make a significant contribution to the performance, safety and comfort of modern motor vehicles.
In addition to this plant in Pudong, BASF has similar compounding facilities in Malaysia, South Korea, and India which are part of BASF’s global network of engineering plastics compounding plants. This network covers other countries in Europe, North and Central America. After the expansion of the Pudong plant, BASF’s total engineering plastics capacity in Asia will exceed 200,000 tons per annum.
Engineering plastics are used, for example, in automotive construction as well as the electrical and electronics industries. Some innovative applications include, seat structures, oil sump modules, sensors, air intake manifolds, cylinder head covers, junction boxes, connectors and highly integrated laser-structured electronic devices.
Contact (Shanghai):
Joanna Shen
Tel: +86 21 2320 3053
Fax: +86 21 2320 3099
joanna.shen(at)basf.com
