In late October, German chemical giant BASF (Ludwigshafen; www.basf.com) announced two major developments in its global polyurethanes business. On 18 October, the group’s new PU systems house in Tianjin / China first opened its doors, to better serve the needs of BASF’s customers in northern China. Construction of the centre, which includes in-house sales, technical service and development teams, first began in 2010 – see Plasteurope.com of 28.09.2010.

The Tianjin PU house is BASF’s eleventh in Asia Pacific and its third in China. The group operates similar hubs in Shanghai and Nansha and plans to commission another house in Chonqing in 2014 – see Plasteurope.com of 12.04.2010. Commenting on the 3.4 hectare site’s opening, Ramkumar Dhruva, BASF’s senior vice president Polyurethanes, said, “Tianjin is strategically located in the heart of the northern China region where the PU market has been experiencing above average growth.”

In addition, the German group on 23 October officially inaugurated its first PU applications technology centre in Russia. Located in Vsevolozhsk, near St. Petersburg, the centre is part of BASF’s Elastokam joint venture with Nizhnekamskneftekhim (Nizhnekamsk, Tatarstan / Russia; www.nknh.ru). Construction of the 2,000 m² hub first began last year – see Plasteurope.com of 22.09.2011.

Aside from technical service and sales know-how, the house also includes a testing laboratory and offers training programmes for BASF’s customers and partners in both Russia and the CIS.