On January 23, 2019, BASF’s new world-class antioxidant plant at the Caojing Base in Shanghai was officially put into operation. With an annual capacity of 42,000 tons, the plant mainly produces antioxidants and corresponding granular products and mixtures for the plastic additives market. The first phase of the project includes a powder mixing unit, a liquid antioxidant production unit and a granular form production unit, which have been put into production and operation.
Dr. Markus Kamieth, Member of the Executive Board of BASF SE, said: “With this investment, BASF will strengthen its position as the world’s leading supplier of antioxidants. Asia is currently the world’s largest market for antioxidants. And China accounts for almost 65% of the Asian market. We believe that the Chinese market will present a very attractive mid-to-long-term growth trend.”
Kothrade said: “BASF wants to become a leading chemical supplier in the minds of customers. We hope that by investing in the construction of advanced production facilities in China, we can better predict and meet customer needs. We will integrate BASF’s chemical industry Combining unique expertise and customer strength, we will jointly develop solutions with both economic benefits and social responsibilities.”
The new facility is located at BASF’s Caojing base in the Shanghai Chemical Industry Park, adjacent to BASF’s regional R&D center in Shanghai, and can provide technical support to polymer producers in the region.
The Importance of Antioxidants
Antioxidants help prevent thermal oxidation of plastics in high temperature processing environments. Oxidation can cause loss of impact strength and elongation, surface cracking and discoloration of the material. Almost all polymeric materials undergo oxidative degradation reactions during one or more stages of production, processing, and use.
BASF has a global production network and is the only supplier with plastic additive production bases in Asia, Europe, North America and the Middle East.