With effect from 1 January 2013, BASF (Ludwigshafen / Germany; www.basf.com) is reorganising its portfolio to concentrate on technology and specific customer industries. As part of the process, the former Plastics segment will be dissolved and the products of its two divisions regrouped into other segments.

The newly created Performance Materials division, to be headed by Raimar Jahn, current head of Polyurethanes, will include downstream products from the former Performance Polymers and Polyurethanes divisions and focus on customer applications in the automotive, construction and E&E industries. It will be incorporated into the former Functional Solutions segment, which is being renamed Functional Materials and Solutions. From 1 March 2013, Wolfgang Hapke, who has headed Performance Polymers since 2010, will take up a new position as president of BASF’s Human Resources division.

Product groups belonging to Performance Materials will include polyurethane systems, engineering plastics, thermoplastic polyurethanes, “Cellasto”, biopolymers, functional foams, the expandable styrenics “Styropor” and “Neopor” along with epoxy systems. Remaining products of the former Plastics segment will be transferred to the Chemicals segment, where some will become part of the newly created Monomers division.

Monomers, to be headed by Stefano Piggozi, at present head of the Inorganics division, will combine current Inorganics products with many of the bulk monomers and basic polymers businesses, including the polyurethane starting materials MDI and TDI, as well as caprolactam, adipic acid, PA 6 and PA 6.6. BASF’s current Petrochemicals division, which will continue to be headed by Rainer Diercks, in future will include polyurethane feedstock propylene oxide, thus bundling it with other propylene derivatives and cracker products.