Jun 13 2007
BASF today celebrated the inauguration of its new polyurethanes specialties site in Pudong, Shanghai. The site operates under the name BASF Polyurethanes Specialties (China) Co. Ltd. and comprises a polyurethane system house, a Technical Research & Development Center and a production plant for thermoplastic polyurethanes (TPU).
“Our local customers are set to benefit from closer support on new applications technology, shorter delivery times and a higher level of technical service,” said Dr. John Feldmann, Member of the Board of Executive Directors of BASF Aktiengesellschaft, responsible for the Plastics as well as Oil & Gas segments.
The new site will use cost advantages provided by the regional production Verbund for polyurethanes: MDI (diphenylmethane diisocyanate) and TDI (toluene diisocyanate) – basic materials needed to produce specialties in Pudong – will be supplied from Caojing, Shanghai. BASF and partners invested $1 billion in an integrated isocyanates complex in Caojing, which started up in mid-2006. BASF opened its first Chinese polyurethane system house in the 1990s in Nansha, South China, and has in the meantime more than 30 system houses globally, eight of which are in Asia Pacific.
China’s polyurethanes market is expected to grow at about 10 percent per year until 2015, becoming the world’s largest market for polyurethanes. In particular, product innovations will contribute to this above-average growth.