BASF expands presence in Asia-Pacific with new TPU facility in Guangdong

On Thursday, German chemical giant BASF announced the launch of a thermoplastic polyurethanes (TPU) facility, the second plant to come on stream at the 10 billion-euro Verbund site under construction in Zhanjiang, Guangdong province.

The new plant will better enable BASF to meet the growing demand in the Asia-Pacific region, especially in the industrial, e-mobility and new energy sectors, said Martin Jung, president, performance materials, BASF, at a ceremony in Zhanjiang on Thursday.

The plant has the largest single TPU production line of BASF globally. TPU is widely used in automotive, footwear, agriculture, sports and leisure, healthcare, and industrial manufacturing industries.

The Zhanjiang site is BASF's largest investment and will ultimately become the group's third-largest site worldwide, following Ludwigshafen, Germany, and Antwerp, Belgium.

The site will include a steam cracker with an annual capacity of 1 million metric tons of ethylene and is set to start up late next year, said Haryono Lim, president, mega projects, Asia, BASF.

An expansion phase covering further downstream plants is expected to be operational by 2028.

The Zhanjiang site will be built into a role model for smart manufacturing and sustainable production.

BASF launched the first plant at the Zhanjiang site in 2022, which can produce 60,000 metric tons of engineering plastic compounds per year.

The two plants already launched at the site are powered by renewable energy.

BASF operates six other Verbund sites worldwide, including one in Nanjing, Jiangsu province. China is BASF's second-largest market after the United States.