The polyurethane business segment at BASF (HQ: D-67056 Ludwigshafen; www.basf.com) increased its sales by more than 27% to EUR 2.8 bn in 2000. Adjusted for exchange rate effects and internal sales, the business still grew by a “significant” 14%, division president head Jean-Pierre Dhanis said at a recent press conference: “Despite considerable increases in raw materials prices in 2000, profits were again higher than in 1999.” Dhanis added that the group is “satisfied” with the business´s profitability and expects it to increase “in the coming years.”

Dhanis said BASF´s strategy for PU is to ensure cost leadership through building integrated world-scale plants for base materials at selected sites, to further expand its system house activities – also through acquisitions – and to enter new markets with innovative products and applications. The German group already regards itself as “the only global supplier of polyurethane base materials” with state-of-the-art world-scale plants for MDI, TDI and polyols in Europe at Antwerp (B), Moerdijk (NL) and Schwarzheide (D), as well as in NAFTA (Geismar, Louisiana / USA) and Asia (Yosu, Korea). The expansion of these sites, currently in progress, “will increase our earnings power even further,” the PU chief said.

BASF expects to build up its European MDI capacity by 100,000 t/y to 320,000 t/y as of 2002. By 2010, it aims to achieve about 35% of sales in that region. Today´s figure is nearly 15%. The group claims that with Yosu it is “the only one of the four global competitors to have its own integrated site in Asia with good infrastructure and logistics and adequate space for expansion.” A 140,000 t/y TDI plant is currently being built at there, to complement a facility of the same size at Geismar. Up to 2004, BASF plans to double total MDI capacity.

Alongside Korea, BASF is also focusing on China, Asia´s largest polyurethane market. Together with partners it plans to build a second integrated site for PU base materials at Caojing, near Shanghai. Investments planned for the Chinese complex include a 160,000 t/y plant for MDI in a joint venture with US group Huntsman and a 130,000 t/y plant for TDI in cooperation with local partners.

Reader Service: Press conference speech (with numerous charts) by Jean-Pierre Dhanis, “BASF Polyurethanes: A Leading Position in a Specialized Business”:PIE-No. 45230.