Jun 14 2007
BASF announced ambitious goals for its Construction Chemicals division. “The market for construction chemicals has a volume of €29 billion and is growing at 4 to 5 percent per year. Our goal is to grow by 7 to 8 percent per year in the coming years in this attractive, innovation-driven market and thus double our sales to approximately €4 billion by 2015,” said Dr. Andreas Kreimeyer, member of the Board of Executive Directors of BASF Aktiengesellschaft and responsible for the Performance Products segment, at a press conference in Trostberg, Germany.
BASF aims to achieve its goals in three ways: First, it plans to transfer technologies that are successful in one region to other regions. Second, BASF’s competencies, for example in research and development, will be used to create better product solutions and achieve rapid market entry. Finally, BASF aims to generate more business in growth markets such as Asia and Eastern Europe. Acquisitions in growth markets are also to play a role in achieving these goals, an example being BASF’s acquisition of Chinese concrete additives producer, Hi Con, in December 2006.
Dr. Bernhard Hofmann, head of BASF’s Construction Chemicals division, highlighted four key trends in the construction industry with which BASF is aligning its business strategy:
Buildings and structures are expected to have a considerably longer lifetime. This cannot be achieved without construction chemistry.
The spectrum of cements and additives such as sand and gravel is constantly expanding. BASF must be able to tailor its concrete admixture products to these changing requirements.
Customers are increasingly calling for lower costs in terms of material, energy and capital on the one hand and faster completion times of building projects on the other hand.
The interest in energy efficiency in the use of the finished buildings has increased enormously and is likely to grow further.
“Our broad product portfolio and an excellent team equip us to meet these challenges,” said Hofmann.
BASF also provided further details of the successful integration of Degussa’s construction chemicals business, which it acquired in July 2006. “We have added an innovative, profitable and fast growing business to our Performance Products segment. The organizational phase of the integration is now largely completed, but we will be working on many details until 2009,“ said Kreimeyer. Overall, Kreimeyer described the acquisition as a successful forward integration for BASF that complements the company’s strong position with regard to products and services for the construction industries.
The construction industry is one of BASF’s key customers, accounting for between 10 and 15 percent of the company’s sales. BASF offers a broad range of customer-specific products – from foams for thermal insulation, plastics for solar heating systems and dispersions for paints to cable insulation material, latent heat stores and glues for particleboard.