MRC – BASF and SINOPEC have broken ground for the expansion of their Verbund site operated by BASF-YPC Co., Ltd. (BASF-YPC), a 50-50 joint venture of both companies in Nanjing, as per BASF's press release.
The expansion includes new capacities of several downstream chemical plants and a new tert-butyl acrylate plant, to serve the growing demand from various industries in the Chinese market.
“BASF-YPC is one of the most successful joint ventures for BASF globally with outstanding safety and business performances,” said Dr. Markus Kamieth, Member of the Board of Executive Directors, BASF SE. “It owes to the trusted partnership between BASF and SINOPEC for more than two decades, which is being further strengthened by this expansion.”
The partners will expand the production capacities of propionic acid, propionic aldehyde, ethyleneamines, ethanolamines and purified ethylene oxide, and build a new tert-butyl acrylate plant. The tert-butyl acrylate plant will be an extension to the downstream using acrylic acid and isobutene of the existing Verbund as feedstock, which marks the first time this advanced production technology is applied outside of Germany. The expanded and new plants are planned to come on stream by the end of 2023.
“We will deploy the state-of-the-art technologies to build the new facilities at the BASF-YPC, which allows us to gain competitive edge in the dynamic Chinese market,” said Dr. Jeffrey Lou, President and Chairman Greater China, BASF. “More importantly, it strongly demonstrates the joint commitments by BASF and SINOPEC to promote sustainable development in China’s chemical industry.”
“The domestic petrochemical industry is in high-quality development. With the support of all involved parties, we will implement the expansion project on the first-class standards,” said Yuefeng Gu, Chairman of Sinopec Yangzi Petrochemical Company Limited and BASF-YPC Company Limited. “The advanced modern petrochemical site will promote the transformation and upgrading of the petrochemical industry and make greater contributions to local economic and sustainable development.”
As MRC reported earlier, in November 2021, BASF increased its production capacity for advanced additives at its wholly-owned site in Nanjing, China. The new asset with state-of-the-art technologies will allow BASF to produce high molecular weight dispersing agents, slip and leveling agents and other additives locally for Asian markets.
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.
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