BASF will expand the production capacity of its existing world-scale production plant for tertiary Butylamine (tBA) at the Nanjing Chemical Industry Park in China. The company plans to increase the existing production capacity by 60 percent, from 10,000 tons to 16,000 tons per year. The expansion is expected to come on stream in early 2015, subject to regulatory approval. The capacity increase will further strengthen BASF's leading position as a global supplier to the rubber and tire industry."The expansion will enable us to continue meeting the notably increased demand of our customers in Asia especially China reliably out of our local assets in China," said Dr. Guido Voit, Senior Vice President, BASF Intermediates Asia Pacific. "We are proud to support the growth of our customers as their reliable local supplier with our commitment in product stewardship and high safety standards ."
tBA is a primary aliphatic amine that is used as an intermediate for the production of accelerators for the rubber and tire industry. It is also used in the pharmaceutical and agricultural industries as a building block. In addition to the plant in Nanjing, BASF produces tBA in Geismar, Louisiana, and in Antwerp, Belgium.
The BASF Group's Intermediates division develops, produces and markets a comprehensive portfolio of about 700 intermediates around the world. Its most important product groups include amines, diols, polyalcohols, acids and specialties. Intermediates are for example used as starting materials for coatings, plastics, pharmaceuticals, textiles, detergents and crop protectants. Innovative intermediates from BASF help to improve both the properties of final products and the efficiency of production processes. The ISO 9001 certified Intermediates division operates plants at production sites in Europe, Asia and North America. Around the globe the division generated sales to third parties of about €2.8 billion in 2013.
