MOSCOW (MRC) -- Global chemical giant BASF is set to move its UK headquarters to 2 Stockport Exchange, said the company.
The company has been operating in the UK since 1880, with its companies supplying raw materials to most industries including agriculture, automotive chemicals, construction, energy and pharmaceuticals.
Its new home – which covers six storeys – will sit at the heart of the wider ?145m development and reach completion in February 2020.
Richard Carter, managing director of BASF in the UK and Ireland, said: "We are looking forward to moving our UK headquarters from Cheadle to this exciting new connected location later this year. Our new office space in Stockport Exchange will feature open and collaborative workspace to enable new and more agile ways of working.
"The move is part of an ongoing Future of Work project which will deliver a better workplace experience through improved digitalisation, increased flexibility and empowered leadership."
The wider transformation is being brought forward in partnership by Stockport Council and Muse Developments.
Council leader Elise Wilson added: "Today marks a real milestone in what we have achieved in Stockport. The building is looking fantastic and has been finished to a really high standard, complementing our ambitious plans for the town centre, like the Mayoral Development Corporation and the thousands of new homes and business opportunities it will create, the new Transport Interchange and improvements to Merseyway.
BASF has 13 locations in the UK, eight of them manufacturing sites, where it employs about 850 people.
As MRC informed before, BASF, the world's petrochemical major, restarted its No. 1 steam cracker on September 30, 2019, following a maintenance turnaorund. 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 polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,904,410 tonnes in the first eleven months of 2019, up by 6% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. PE shipments increased from both domestic producers and foreign suppliers. The PP consumption in the Russian market was 1,161,830 tonnes in January-November 2019, up by 7% year on year. Deliveries of all grades of propylene polymers increased, with the homopolymer PP segment accounting for the largest increase.
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