BASF verbund site officially open

BASF has celebrated the official inauguration of its world-scale verbund site at Zhanjiang (pictured under construction) in Guangdong province, southern China. This is its seventh verbund site worldwide and the third largest after Ludwigshafen, and Antwerp.

Built at a cost of around €8.7 billion, the facility covers 4 km2 and employs over 2,000. It will ultimately produce a diversified portfolio including basic chemicals, intermediates and speciality chemicals for the transportation, consumer goods, electronics, home care and personal care industries, mostly in China itself

“Zhanjiang shows what the future of chemistry looks like: efficient, digital and sustainable by design. The site showcases a smart integrated verbund structure on an industrial scale,” said BASF CEO Dr Markus Kamieth. This, among other things, enables up to 50% reductions in CO2emissions compared with a conventional petrochemical site.

The project was announced in 2018 and opened its first production plant in 2022. To date, BASF has successfully started up 18 plants and 32 production lines, and is making over 70 products