BASF: New TPU plant started up at the Verbund site in Zhanjiang

The German chemical company BASF has started up a plant for the production of thermoplastic polyurethanes (TPU) at its new Verbund site in Zhanjiang in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong.

The company recently announced this in a press release. The new complex is the Group's largest single plant for TPU products worldwide. However, no further details on the production capacities were given in the press release. The new plant is a so-called smart factory with automated process control.

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Martin Jung, Head of BASF's Performance Materials division: "The plant enables BASF to meet the growing market demand for TPU in the Asia-Pacific region, especially in the industrial, e-mobility and new energy segments, and to be closer to the most important customer industries in China and the entire region. With this plant, we are strengthening the supply of innovative and recyclable Elastollan-branded TPU solutions in Asia and continuing our 'Plastics Journey' towards a more sustainable plastics economy."

BASF commissioned the first plant at the Verbund site in Zhanjiang in September 2022. This was a compounding plant for engineering plastics with an annual capacity of 60,000 tonnes. Last year, ground was broken in Zhanjiang for a polyethylene plant with an annual production capacity of 500,000 tonnes and for a complex for the production and further processing of acrylic acid.

According to BASF, it is investing a total of around ten billion euros in the development of the Zhanjiang Verbund site, which will be the Group's third-largest production site worldwide after Ludwigshafen and Antwerp once it is fully completed.

More information: www.basf.com

BASF SE, Ludwigshafen, Germany