CHEMICALS
BASF builds production capability
B ASF has inaugurated two new manufacturing plants at its site in Freeport, Texas -a production line for polyamide 6 and a plant for superabsorbent polymers (SAP).
The polyamide production line replaces a facility in Enka, North Carolina. The new line has an annual capacity of 120 000 metric tons per year. The new SAP plant has a capacity of 180 000 metric tons per year and replaces existing facilities in Aberdeen, Mississippi and Portsmouth, Virginia.
BASF will expand its plant for low molecular weight, highly reactive polyisobutene, which is marketed under the Glissopal trademark, at its site in Antwerp, Belgium. BASF will increase its capacity for Glissopal in Antwerp by 25 000 tonnes to 100 000 tonnes per year. The start up of the expanded capacity is planned for March 2008.
BASF Coatings is expanding its production and laboratory capacities for the manufacture of eco-efficient waterborne coatings at its WΓΌrzburg site. This is in response to growing demand in the European and Asian markets, especially from the automotive industry. In MΓΌnster-Hiltrup, BASF Coatings is also investing in the construction of a new polyurethane reactor to produce resins for the manufacture of waterborne coatings. The combined 29 million investment is one of the largest in the company's history.
The mothballed BASF plant for the manufacture of tetrahydrofuran (THF) at the Caojing site near Shanghai, China, is ready to go back on stream. The plant is now equipped with a new production unit enabling the alternative use of butane diol as a raw material for THF production in addition to butane.