MOSCOW (MRC) -- BASF, the world’s leading chemical company, has undertaken three key capacity expansion projects for performance materials at its Pudong site in Shanghai (China), reported the company on its site.
The capacity expansion projects includes Ultramid (polyamide, PA), Ultradur (polybutylene terephthalate, PBT), Elastollan thermoplastics polyurethane elastomers (TPU), and Technical Center and capacity expansion of Cellasto (microcellular polyurethane components).
"More than 60% of China’s people will live in cities by 2020. Supporting an environmentally-friendly path for urbanization presents a huge opportunity for chemistry as an enabler for sustainable innovations in areas ranging from industrial manufacturing to construction, transportation and consumer goods," said Albert Heuser, President, Greater China and Functions Asia Pacific, BASF.
BASF estimates the Asia Pacific market for engineering plastics will grow on average by about 7% per year. This growth is driven by the increasing usage of engineering plastics in various segments, including transportation, construction, high speed railway, as well as the electrical and electronics industry. Ultramid and Ultradur are used in automotive parts and innovative applications include seat structures, oil sump modules, sensors, engine mounts, connectors and highly integrated laser-structured electronic devices.
Additionally, according to China’s national New Urbanization Plan (2014-2020), with additional 100 million people living in cities by 2020, the percentage of more energy-efficient and environmentally-friendly buildings among newly constructed buildings in China will rise to 50% from 2% today. BASF recently introduced co-extrudable Ultradur to reinforce thermally insulated PVC window profiles, an important contributor to building energy efficiency.
The compounding plant’s total capacity for Ultramid and Ultradur compounds has doubled from currently 45,000 to more than 100,000 metric tons per year - making it BASF’ s biggest engineering plastics compounding facility in Asia Pacific. The expansion, which is operational more than six months ahead of schedule, also includes a compounding line for specialty grades that enables BASF to tap the burgeoning market potential for specialty applications. With this project and the new compounding plant in Yesan, Chung Nam Province, Korea, which is expected to begin operations from the end of 2015, BASF’s overall compounding capacities in Asia will increase from the current 130,000 to a total of 225,000 metric tons.
BASF has now completed a significant capacity expansion at its Shanghai-based Elastollan plant, which was established in 2007. Elastollan TPU is a versatile material that offers the highest innovation potential. It can be processed with different methods, including extrusion and injection molding as well as blow molding. The expansion of capacity for TPU in China will support growth of the rapidly growing market for textile, footwear, transportation, wire and cable sheathing and other industrial applications.
Besides, the new investment project includes the expansion of the Cellasto Asia Pacific Technical Center, the establishment of three new production lines, and the technical improvement of existing facilities. Cellasto is the customized solution for damping and reduction of the noise, vibration and harshness (NVH) level of vehicles. The production capacity will be doubled after the project completion in 2015.
Cellasto components are sold to the automotive industry mainly as jounce bumpers, top mounts and coil spring isolators for suspension, as well as other NVH parts. BASF currently produces Cellasto at six sites worldwide: Lemforde, Germany, Shanghai and Nansha, China, Guaratingueta, Brazil, Shinshiro, Japan, and Wyandotte, USA.
We remind that, as MRC reported earlier, BASF is building a new Ultramid polymerization plant with a capacity of 100,000 metric tons per year in Shanghai, China. The new plant is planned to start up in 2015.
BASF is the largest diversified chemical company in the world and is headquartered in Ludwigshafen, Germany. BASF 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 had sales of about EUR74 billion in 2013 and over 112,000 employees as of the end of the year.
MRC