2015-2017 Exhibitions
Germany-based chemicals firm BASF is further strengthening its manufacturing footprint in Asia. It recently broke ground on a new Innovation Campus in Navi Mumbai, India. The company will invest EUR50 million via BASF Chemicals India Private Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of BASF SE. The facility will accommodate around 300 scientists investigating areas such as crop protection, process development and polymer research.
In 2020, BASF aims to generate EUR30 billion of sales worldwide with products that have been introduced in the market since 2011. To achieve this ambitious goal, BASF is further developing the research organisation and bundling its competencies in three global platforms, with the headquarters of Advanced Materials & Systems Research based in the Asia Pacific region. The BASF Innovation Campus (Mumbai) will be a key hub of BASF’s global R&D network, and, next to Shanghai, BASF’s second major R&D location in Asia Pacific.
“We will not only serve our customers in all industries in the region but also in other regions with global research projects that will be led out of Mumbai,” said Martin Brudermüller, Vice Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors, BASF SE, and responsible for the Asia Pacific region. “Along with this important new investment in the BASF Innovation Campus (Mumbai), we are also establishing specialised research facilities in Asia Pacific in the areas of electronic materials, battery materials, catalysis, mining, water treatment, polymers and materials. Step by step, Asia Pacific thus becomes an integral part of our global innovation power.”
Development activities will serve BASF’s Performance Chemicals, Care Chemicals, and Pigments & Dispersions businesses. It will begin operation in 2017 and will include synthesis, application, process, and analytical laboratories. Along with scientific facilities, the 20,000 sq m site includes technical facilities, logistics areas, a full-scale auditorium and canteen, and employee amenities areas.
In India, BASF has 2,254 employees at eight production sites and sales offices as well as two R&D centers. In 2013, BASF registered sales of EUR1.02 billion to customers in India.
Chemical catalysts plant in China to serve Asia
Meanwhile, in China, the German firm is building a world-scale chemical catalysts production facility at its existing site in the Shanghai Chemical Industry Park in Caojing, Shanghai.
The plant – BASF’s first process catalysts manufacturing facility in Asia Pacific – will produce base metal catalysts, custom catalysts, and adsorbents to meet growing Chinese and Asian market demand. These catalysts are used in the production of fatty alcohols, sulphuric acid and butanediol and for the removal of impurities from olefins.
Construction of the new plant begins this month, with the launch of manufacturing activities planned for the fourth quarter of 2016. Once operating at full capacity, the plant will create 75 new jobs in Shanghai.
“The plant we are building in Caojing will provide a strong regional manufacturing base for our business and greatly improved proximity to our customers in Asia Pacific, which is the fastest growing region for our base metal and custom catalysts solutions,” said Dr. Detlef Ruff, BASF Senior Vice President, Process Catalysts & Technologies. “This plant will be highly automated and energy efficient, offering room for additional expansion as well as flexibility to adapt to new customer production requirements in the years to follow.”
“By 2020, BASF aims for local production of approximately 75% of the products we sell in Asia Pacific, in order to intensify our collaboration with and strengthen our supply position to customers in the region. To achieve this, together with our partners we are investing EUR10 billion from 2013 - 2020 to further develop our local production footprint in Asia Pacific,” said Dr. Albert Heuser, President Functions Asia Pacific, President and Chairman Greater China, BASF.
(PRA)
