BASF is spending more than €200 million on expanding its production network for plastic additives. In its latest move, the German group said it will build a 42,000 t/y world-scale plant for antioxidants and associated forms and blends at its Caojing site in Shanghai, China. The new facility is due to go on stream in 2019 with commercial scale production reached by early 2020.

Hermann Althoff, senior vice president of BASF’s Performance Chemicals unit in Asia Pacific, said the plant will comply with high environmental standards and have one of the most efficient production processes. It will also be able to tap BASF’s regional application center in Shanghai that provides technical support to polymer producers and converters. 

BASF claims to be the only supplier of plastic additives with production sites in Asia, Europe, North America and the Middle East. “Asia, and particularly the Chinese market, offer significant growth opportunities, driven by diverse applications including packaging, construction, consumer goods, automotive and many more,” said Althoff.

In plastics processing, antioxidants help prevent thermal oxidation reactions when the materials are processed at high temperatures and light-assisted oxidation when exposed to UV light, thus causing loss of impact strength, elongation, surface cracks and discoloration.