Photo/Shetuwang_501645376

German chemical giant BASF SE announced the first plants of its Verbund site in Zhanjiang City, south China's Guangdong Province, started production as scheduled on Tuesday.

Dr. Martin Brudermüller, chairman of the board of executive directors of BASF, proclaimed this highly-anticipated BASF Zhanjiang Verbund site was put into operation at the plant inauguration ceremony held in Zhanjiang.

As planned, the first plants can provide an annual output of 60,000 tonnes of engineering plastic compounds. It will raise BASF's total production of engineering plastic compounds in the Asia-Pacific region to 420,000 tonnes annually.

The production capacity can better meet customers' growing demand, particularly in the automotive, electronics, and new energy vehicles industries, said Haryono Lim, senior vice president of New Verbund Site China of BASF.

The Verbund site marks the first wholly foreign-funded project in China's heavy chemical industry. It covers an area of around 9 square km and is expected to gain a total investment worth up to 10 billion euros (about 9.93 billion U.S. dollars) by 2030.

It is BASF's largest investment to date and represents a new paradigm of win-win cooperation between China and Germany.

The construction of the Verbund site is expected to be completed by 2030. When fully operational, it can produce 60,000 tonnes of engineering plastic compounds, 1 million tonnes of ethylene, and a variety of petrochemicals, intermediates, and other products annually. 

Email: tanyuhan@nbd.com.cn