Significant Events

January – April 2016

  • Adjustment of plant biotechnology portfolio
  • Agreement to sell polyolefin catalyst busines to W.R. Grace & Co.
  • Plan to acquire automotive refinishing business from Guangdong Yinfan Chemistry Co. Ltd.
  • Joint operation to be established with Kolon Plastics for polyoxymethylene (POM) production
  • Furandicarboxylic acid (FDCA) to be produced and marketed together with Avantium

As part of our regular portfolio review, we are refocusing our plant biotechnology research portfolio and will restructure operations in this area. We will devote even more attention to research projects with high success potential, such as crop herbicide tolerance and fungus resistance in soybeans. Projects associated with extremely high technical hurdles, demanding significant investments of our time and finances, will be suspended. The aim is to adjust our site setup in North America and Europe by the end of 2016. This includes a reduction of approximately 350 positions, 140 of which in North America and 180 in Europe. Around 700 employees currently work in plant biotechnology research and development.

We reached an agreement with W.R. Grace & Co. in April 2016 on the sale of our global polyolefin catalyst business, which is part of the Catalysts division. The transaction is expected to conclude by the end of the third quarter of 2016, subject to the necessary consultation with employee representatives and approval from relevant authorities. The sale involves technologies, patents, brands and the transfer of BASF’s production plants in Pasadena, Texas, and Tarragona, Spain. Around 170 employees are expected to transfer to W.R. Grace & Co.

Since the beginning of the year, we have agreed upon two transactions involving the Coatings division. As announced in February 2016, an agreement was reached with AkzoNobel on the disposal of the industrial coatings business. We also signed an agreement in April to acquire the automotive refinishing business of Guangdong Yinfan Chemistry Co. Ltd. (“Yinfan”) in China. This will enable us to expand our production capacities in the Coatings division and gain access to a high-tech production facility, and the Yinfan product lines will broaden the range of automotive refinish coatings we offer in Asia Pacific. The acquisition strengthens our position in the rapidly growing market for refinish coatings in China. Provided approval is granted by relevant authorities, we expect the transaction to conclude in the second half of 2016.

We agreed to establish a joint operation with Kolon Plastics for the manufacture of polyoxymethylene (POM), an engineering plastic, in South Korea. Each partner is to hold a 50% share in the company. With an annual capacity of 70,000 metric tons and its location at the existing Kolon Plastics production site in Gimcheon, South Korea, it will be the world’s largest POM production complex. After the plant’s startup in South Korea in the second half of 2018, we will discontinue production of POM in Ludwigshafen.

We signed a letter of intent to establish a company together with Avantium for the production and marketing of furandicarboxylic acid (FDCA), as well as for the marketing of polyethylenefuranoate (PEF), a new polymer based on it. PEF can seal out carbon dioxide and oxygen more effectively than conventional plastics, making for thinner packaging walls, especially in the beverage industry. Together with Avantium, we intend to construct an FDCA plant at the BASF site in Antwerp, Belgium, with an annual capacity of up to 50,000 metric tons. The aim here is to build up worldwide leading positions in FDCA and PEF and license the technology on an industrial scale.