BASF has broken ground on the €90 million expansion of its Innovation Campus Asia Pacific at Pudong, Shanghai, China.

The second phase of the project adds a regional research and development (R&D) building and auxiliary facilities to be completed by the end of 2015.

"By 2020, around 25% of BASF's R&D employees will be located in Asia Pacific. The expansion reinforces BASF's commitment to globalizing its R&D activities and capturing growth opportunities in China and Asia Pacific," said managing board member Andreas Kreimeyer, who has responsibility for R&D.

The Shanghai innovation campus, focuses primarily on advanced materials and systems but it also adds new areas such as formulations and chemical process and engineering for growth industries such as automotive, construction, health and nutrition, and home and personal care,. It is expected to become one of the German group's largest R&D sites outside its home country.

Some 18 months after its inauguration, BASF said the Innovation Campus Asia Pacific has strengthened its position as the preferred innovation partner for customers in the region, for example from the construction, automotive, paint and coatings, home and personal care and packaging industries.

What the group calls "the world's first co-extrudable PBT (Ultradur) for reinforcement of thermally insulated polyvinyl chloride (PVC) window profile" was developed at Shanghai together with Dalian Shide Group.