Our partners, chemical concern BASF investigates an option to establish the second Verbund site in Chinese South province of Guangdong. Lately, representatives of BASF’s Board of Executive Directors and the province’s authorities undersigned a non-binding Memorandum of understanding.
China remains a leader on the global chemical market (excl. pharma) by manufacturing around 40% of products. On the other hand, BASF is in a good and stable position in China. There are 25 plants, a range of sales offices as well as Innovations Campus in Shanghai.
Guangdong province is home to customers from these key industries, as well as other fast-growing industries. With more than 110 million residents, Guangdong is the most populous province in China. Its gross domestic product, currently growing at 7% annually, already exceeds that of Spain and will soon have reached that of South Korea.
Prelimenary, it is planned to start-up a steam cracker plant with 1 mln tons of ethylene pro year capacity as a core of the new cluster. BASF intends to implement a comprehensive smart manufacturing concept based on cutting-edge technologies. In the future, customers based in South China would be supplied from this high-tech Verbund site. Investments can reach $10 bln until 2030 and the first plantsare to be started up not later than 2026. So BASF has a little left to do before taking a final decision. The next step is to be a pre-feasibility study. In case, results are satisfactory we will see a brand new smart Verbund soon.
