BASF today announced that it is expanding its business with Cellasto automotive spring aids and top mounts made of microcellular polyurethane (PU). "With our existing sites in North and South America, Asia and Europe, we have strengthened our market position in the past years," comments Kenneth Lane, Senior Vice President, Strategic Marketing Polyurethanes.
Moreover the new Shanghai site is scheduled for completion by the first half of 2011. "Producing and supplying products in the same region that our customer is located is critical to our long term success", states Lane.
The successful business expansion is mainly the result of global key account management. "BASF can offer its customers a solution on a global scale - an unbeatable advantage, because customers not only save on development costs, they also have a reliable single global supplier," Lane says. BASF's Cellasto business is supported by some 20 key account managers and their teams, who can quickly offer competitive solutions to customers in every region.
Cellasto has gained market share especially in the PU top mounts and spring isolators business. Examples include new global platforms for cars like Opel Astra and the new Citroen C4 or the new global GM platforms such as Delta, Epsilon, and Gamma, which will all be fitted world-wide with BASF top mounts from 2011 onward.
"We see in the first months of 2010 that Cellasto continues to show attractive profitable growth," Lane states. "A lot of NVH (noise, vibration, and harshness) components in cars are still made using conventional rubber. We are pursuing a clear strategy to replace rubber as a material." That's because Cellasto is not only more robust and durable, it also has superior physical properties when it comes to isolating vibrations from whatever source: Cellasto minimizes noise from the engine, vibrating chassis and rumbling shock absorbers and reduces strut vibrations. The microcellular polyurethane foam saves space and weight due to its excellent volume compressibility. This feature makes Cellasto ideal for high durable and compression tasks in confined areas of a chassis, while also providing increased safety and comfort. New applications such as steering dampers and roll restrictors are expected to open up other new attractive markets.
BASF is the world leader in the supply of microcellular polyurethane components. Cellasto is inside every second car manufactured in the world. Nine out of ten carmakers use BASF spring aids. Under the Cellasto brand, BASF develops, produces and distributes components from microcellular polyurethane elastomers that enhance driving comfort in the form of spring aids, coil spring isolators, and top mounts.