BASF is investing approximately € 90 million to set up a world-scale production
plant at the Shanghai Chemical Industry
Park in Shanghai, China. The new plant
will produce high performance resins and
electrocoat (e-coat). The start-up of the production line is planned for the second half
of 2015. The plant will help to address the
increasing demand for high quality coatings solutions in growing industries, notably the automotive industry, in Asia Pacific.
“The continued investment in our in-
frastructure and capacity demonstrates
our strong commitment to supporting our
customers’ growing business in the auto-
motive market in Asia Pacific, particularly
in China,” said Peter Fischer, senior vice
president, Coatings Solutions Asia Pacific.
“With the new plant in place, we will re-
spond to customers even quicker and fur-
ther enhance our efficiency of logistics and
supply of advanced coatings products.”
This new resin and e-coat plant will be lo-
cated adjacent to another new BASF automo-
tive coatings plant that broke ground in early
2013. The close proximity of these two plants
will allow for more synergies and efficiency.
Resin is a key intermediate used in the
production of various types of coatings. The
new facility will supply resins with the latest
technology to support the company’s expanding coatings production and growth plans.
Applying the latest technologies, BASF’s
new plant will also supply CathoGuard
800, an e-coat that is ideally suited for the
new standard of integrated coatings application processes and contains less than one
percent solvents. E-coat is a critical coating
layer in automotive production, protecting
a car’s surfaces, edges and cavities from corrosion, as well as being the base for applying subsequent paint layers.
Sun Chemical Performance
Pigments Expands Services
and Products to Brazil and
Latin America
Sun Chemical Performance Pigments has
expanded its dedicated regional sales and
service team, local warehousing and lab
support for its pigment products dedicat-
ed to the coatings, cosmetics, inks, plas-
tics and specialties markets in Brazil and
Latin America.
Sun Chemical is increasing its dedi-
cated local service people in the re-
gion to help customers with technical
issues, quality control and commer-
cial development for a wide range of
products—especially environmental-
ly-friendly pigments and dispersions
geared for the architectural coatings
market and the next generation of
heavy-metal free, low odor and vola-
tile organic compounds (VOCs)-free
compliant coatings.
“Sun Chemical Performance Pigments
is very excited to have an expanded presence here in Brazil and in Latin America
as a whole,” said Myron Petruch,
president, Sun Chemical Performance
Pigments. “We are committed to the region and plan to provide our customers
here with the kind of service that we are
known for at Sun Chemical—that is with
quality, service and innovation. Our dedicated team to the region will ensure that
each technical need of our customers is
met with solutions tailor-made for their
specific challenge.”
Evonik to Expand Silica
Capacity in Thailand
Evonik Industries has now significantly
expanded precipitated silica capacity at
its Maptaphut site in Thailand. Funded
by an investment in the lower double-digit million-euro range, the expansion
is to be completed in the first quarter of
2014. In addition to its application in the
automotive industry for low rolling resistance tires, silica is also used in the food
and animal feed industries, and in the
paint and coatings industry. Demand in
Southeast Asia for precipitated silica has
risen sharply in these industries.
“The purpose of our expansion strat-
egy is to allow us to support the growth
of our key customers in Southeast Asia
and around the world,” said Thomas
Haeberle, member of the Evonik
Executive Board and responsible for the
company’s Resource Efficiency Segment.
Experts estimate that the worldwide mar-
ket for low rolling resistance tires will
grow by a solid 18 percent each year over
the next five years. Evonik has responded
by noticeably expanding its global silica
capacity. By 2014, its capacity is to grow
by roughly 30 percent over 2010.
Using silica in combination with silanes allows manufacturers to produce
tires that greatly reduce rolling resistance,
yielding fuel savings of up to 8 percent
(compared to traditional car tires).
Allnex to Acquire Bayer
MaterialScience’s Non-Waterborne Radiation
Curing Resins Business
Allnex has signed an agreement to acquire Bayer MaterialScience’s non-waterborne radiation curing resins business,
marketed under the Desmolux brand and
representing a specialized portfolio of
radiation curing oligomers suitable for
higher performance uses.
The Desmolux product portfolio includes non-waterborne radiation curing
acrylated resins and radiation curing unsaturated polyesters in acrylated diluents.
The acquisition of the Desmolux product
portfolio will complement Allnex’s leading position in Ebecryl UV/EB radiation
curing products.
The deal is expected to close in the
second half of 2013.
BASF to Build Plant for
High Performance Ultramid
in China
BASF is building a new Ultramid polym-
erization plant with a capacity of 100,000
metric tons per year in Shanghai, China. The
new plant is planned to start up in 2015.
“As part of our long-term strategy,
we aim to locate production close to
BASF to Invest in
New Resin Plant in Shanghai
