BASF completed the sale of its construction chemicals business to an affiliate of private equity investor Lone Star on the last day of September and the 2020 third quarter. Selling price was €3.17 billion.
Evonik and Siemens Energy have commissioned a pilot plant that uses carbon dioxide (CO2) and water to produce chemicals. The plant is the culmination of two years’ work under the Rheticus I and II research projects to develop a technically feasible foundation for artificial photosynthesis using a bioreactor and electrolyzers.
BASF, in mutual agreement with partner Idemitsu Kosan, has decided to end its joint-venture 1,4-butanediol (BDO) in Japan. Consequently, BASF Idemitsu’s BDO plant at Chiba, Japan, will close in December 2020. All 21 people employed at the plant will be offered alternative employment at either BASF or Idemitsu in Japan.
BASF has announced plans to double global capacity for its Uvinul A Plus-branded UV filters with a new line at its Kaohsiung site in Taiwan. Up to now, it has produced the filters solely at its headquarters site in Ludwigshafen, Germany.
Why BASF Venture Capital is investing in SmartAHC, a supplier of digitalization solutions for pig farming on the Chinese market.
Through an acquisition dating back 14 years, BASF is embroiled in the same type of litigation trap as compatriot Bayer currently faces. The Ludwigshafen group’s US catalyst subsidiary formerly known as Engelhard, in conjunction with the New Jersey company’s former law firm, has just reached an out-of-court settlement of lawsuits alleging its talc was contaminated with asbestos.
BASF and Thyssenkrupp have signed a joint development agreement to expand their cooperation on the Thyssenkrupp’s Steam Active Reforming (STAR process). The engineering group’s proprietary dehydrogenation process is used to produce propylene from propane feedstocks or iso-butylene from iso-butane feedstocks, using an exceptionally stable catalyst.
Kurt Bock has been elected as new chairman of the BASF supervisory Board, succeeding Jürgen Hambrecht. His term will run until the end of the annual shareholders’ meeting in 2024.
BASF is starting pilot tests on a chemical recycling process for used PU mattresses at its Schwarzheide site in the German state of Brandenburg.
The chemical industry is on the threshold of a new era – the age of circularity. We asked industry experts to share their opinions on this transformational topic.
BASF has signed a new agreement for its headquarters site at Ludwigshafen, Germany, covering wages and working conditions for the 34,000 employees who work there.
BASF has retracted its earnings estimate for 2020 communicated at the end of February, citing a clouded outlook amid the coronavirus pandemic. “In any case, the Feb. 28 forecast will not be met,” it said.
The fate of the agrochemical innovation, development, product launch and production are strongly linked to the parallel development of the fine chemicals and custom manufacturing industry.
Swiss chemical, pharmaceutical and life sciences companies help drive research around the world, and major players have research activities in the US, Singapore, Japan, as well as EU facilities in the United Kingdom and Germany. But do not underestimate the role of the domestic regional clusters and industrial sites.
