BASF is investing approximately €90 million in the first step to build a mobile emissions catalysts production facility in Środa Śląska, a Special Economic Zone near Wrocław, Poland. Construction of the new 40,000 square meter facility - BASF's largest in Europe - will begin before the end of 2012. The plant will start production in the first quarter of 2014.

Additional expansion will follow, raising the total investment volume for the project to approximately €150 million. Once all 10 planned light duty and heavy duty production lines are operating at full capacity by 2016, BASF expects to employ more than 400 people at the new site.

Among the advanced technologies that will be produced in Poland are Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) systems and SCR on Filter solutions. In addition, the plant will house a regional sample laboratory and a production line for BASF's Premair-branded ozone destruction catalysts for automotive applications.

In parallel with the new production plant, BASF is also currently modernizing and expanding its emissions catalyst production operation in Nienburg, Germany.