BASF in Greater China

At a glance

BASF has been a committed partner to Greater China since 1885. With larger production sites in Shanghai, Nanjing and Chongqing, BASF is a major foreign investor in the country’s chemical industry, and operates the Innovation Campus Shanghai, a global and regional research and development hub. BASF posted sales of approximately €12¹ billion in 2021 to customers in Greater China and employed 11,070 people as of the end of the year. Greater China is currently BASF’s second largest market after the United States.

BASF currently operates 26 major wholly-owned subsidiaries, 10 major joint ventures, and maintains 25 sales offices in Greater China. BASF’s business in Greater China includes Petrochemicals, Intermediates, Performance Materials, Monomers, Dispersions & Resins, Performance Chemicals, Catalysts, Coatings, Care Chemicals, Nutrition & Health and Agricultural Solutions.

These solutions are used in almost all areas of daily life such as in houses, cars, food, agriculture, pharmaceuticals, textile, household goods, electronic equipment, and packaging. Over the past 20 years, BASF has invested more than €8 billion in Greater China (more than €11 billion with partners) to build a locally competitive production, marketing, sales, technical service and innovation network.

BASF major sites in Greater China

Shanghai Pudong Innovation Park

An integrated site with global, regional and local activities for research and development, production, sales and marketing, and functional units

Location: Gaoqiao, Pudong, Shanghai
Key milestones:

o Established in 1994
o Became a wholly-owned BASF entity in 2000
o Home to the BASF Greater China headquarters (legal entity since 2004; operations since 2012)
o Innovation Campus Shanghai established in 2012
o Operating nine production plants and a wastewater treatment plant by end of 2021

Products: Advanced materials including Ultramid^® (polyamide, PA), Ultradur^® (polybutylene terephthalate, PBT), polyurethane systems, Elastollan^® thermoplastics polyurethane elastomers (TPU) and Cellasto^® (microcellular polyurethane), acrylic dispersions & copolymers colorants, detergent, metal complex dyes, leather auxiliaries, polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP), 3D printing materials and mobile emissions catalysts.

Nanjing Verbund site

An integrated Verbund site jointly run by BASF and Sinopec (shareholding ratio: 50-50)

Location: Nanjing Jiangbei New Materials High-Tech Park
Key milestones:

o Established in 2000
o Commercial production since 2005
o Inauguration of its second phase in 2012
o Operating 33 production plants by end of 2021

Products: low density polyethylene, ethylene-vinyl acetate, ethylene glycol, polystyrene, acrylic acid and acrylic esters, non-ionic surfactants, superabsorbent polymers, n-butanol, iso-butanol, 2-propyl-heptanol, butadiene, polyisobutylene, etc.

2021 key facts and figures:

o Total investment of $5.5 billion
o Over 2,000 employees
o Sales in 2021: Around €3.6 billion

Shanghai Caojing site

A major production site with one wholly-owned company and three joint ventures

Location: Shanghai Chemical Industry Park in Caojing, Shanghai
Key milestones:

o Established in 2002
o First PolyTHF^® production in 2005
o Operating 16 production plants as of the end of 2021

Major companies:

o BASF Chemicals Co. Ltd. (wholly-owned)
o BASF Shanghai Coatings Co. Ltd. (joint venture with Shanghai Huayi Fine Chemical Co., Ltd)
o Shanghai Lianheng Isocyanate Co. Ltd. and Shanghai BASF Polyurethane Company Limited (two joint ventures with several partners)

Products: Polytetrahydrofuran (PolyTHF^®), TDI (toluene diisocyanate), MDI (methylene diphenyl diisocyanate), polyisocyanate (Basonat^®), precious metals-based salts and solutions, automotive coatings, resins and electrocoat, polyamide polymerization and process catalysts and antioxidants

Nanjing Site

A BASF wholly-owned production site for multiple products, including water-treatment monomers amine products and coating additives

Location: Nanjing Jiangbei New Materials High-tech Park
Key milestones:

o Became BASF’s wholly-owned company in 2009, and renamed as BASF Specialty Chemicals (Nanjing) Co. Ltd. in 2011
o Operating nine plants as of the end of 2021

Products: ACM, AGEFLEX^® FA1Q80MC, Anionic Flocculant, Cationic Flocculant, t-BA (tert-Butylamine), DMAPA (3-(dimethylamino)Propylamine), PEA (Polyetheramine), N-Octylamine A/P, 1,2-Propylenediamine, additives for painting, ink, coating and adhesive

Chongqing site

BASF wholly-owned production site for MDI

Location: Changshou Economic & Technological Development Area, Chongqing
Key milestones:

o First MDI production in 2015
o Completion of new steam methane reformer in 2018

Product: MDI with annual capacity of 400,000 metric tons

Zhanjiang Verbund site (under construction)

Built and operated under the sole responsibility of BASF, upon completion, the site will be BASF’s largest investment and ultimately BASF’s third-largest site worldwide (following Ludwigshafen, Germany, and Antwerp, Belgium)

Location: Zhanjiang, Guangdong province
Key milestones:

o MoU signed in Berlin on July 9, 2018
o Commencement of the Verbund site project in Zhanjiang, Guangdong on November 23, 2019
o Started piling of the first plants on May 30, 2020, scheduled to be operational respectively by 2022 and by 2023
o The whole Verbund site is planned to be completed by 2030

Investment: around €8 - €10 billion upon completion
Plants and products:

o The BASF Zhanjiang Verbund site will be built in phases. The first plant will be producing Engineering Plastics, followed by a TPU (Thermoplastic Polyurethane) plant, both of which are currently under construction.

o The next phase, consisting of 1 million ton of ethylene cracker and other downstream products along the value chain, including intermediate chemicals, care chemicals, nutrition and health.

¹Sales of BASF Group companies in the scope of consolidation. Sales of joint ventures and associated companies with BASF’s investment of between 20% and 50% in general which are consolidated at equity (e.g.BASF-YPC Company Limited) are not included.

BASF Group 2021 at a glance

At BASF, we create chemistry for a sustainable future.

Learn more

Innovation

Innovation is the bedrock of BASF’s success as a leading chemical company and is the key driver for its profitable growth. Asia is now the largest chemical market and there is a growing demand for more sustainable products and solutions.

Learn more

Supplier management

BASF aims to optimize its supply chain in a sustainable manner through its industry collaborations and digitalization approaches.

Learn more