Segment Profile

In the Nutrition & Care segment – consisting of the Care Chemicals and Nutrition & Health divisions – we serve the growing and increasingly sophisticated demands for fast-moving consumer goods. Our customers include food and feed producers as well as the pharmaceutical, cosmetics, detergent and cleaner industries. We also offer solutions for technical applications and for crop protection and plant nutrition. We strive to expand our position as a leading provider of ingredients and solutions for consumer applications in the areas of nutrition, home and personal care. Our goal is to drive organic growth by focusing on emerging markets, new business models and sustainability trends in consumer markets, supported by targeted acquisitions.

Divisions

Care Chemicals

Ingredients for the cosmetics, detergent and cleaner industries, agrochemical and technical applications

Nutrition & Health

Products for the food and feed industries, the flavor and fragrance industry, the pharmaceutical industry and the bioethanol industry

Sales

Nutrition & Care – Sales (pie chart)
Factors influencing sales
Nutrition & Care – Factors influencing sales (bar chart)
Income from operations before special items

Million €

Nutrition & Care – Income from operations before special items (bar chart)

How we create value – an example

Kolliphor® P 188 Bio
High-purity poloxamer designed for biologics manufacturing

Value for our customers

Reduces process-related impurities

around 40-fold

Value for BASF

Estimated annual volume growth

>10%

In drug manufacturing, cultivating cell cultures is a complex process with stringent regulatory requirements that must be met to ensure a high level of purity and cell viability. This enables consistent drug production. Kolliphor® P 188 Bio is a high-performance pharmaceutical processing aid from BASF that supports the cultivation of cell cultures. It is added to cell culture systems to reduce risks such as shear stress. A validated production process and regular controls ensure the purity and quality of Kolliphor® P 188 Bio. Its consistent performance and supply reduce process-related impurities in our customers’ manufacturing processes around 40-fold. This saves them from conducting additional tests and simplifies the manufacturing process.

Identifying and enhancing key product characteristics in the manufacturing process enables BASF to meet the needs of its customers and at the same time, exploit new market opportunities. Kolliphor® P 188 Bio is an example of this. Developed and produced by BASF, this pharmaceutical processing aid is used in drug production and ensures product quality, consistency and performance in cell cultures. With Kolliphor® P 188 Bio, we expect to grow faster than the market for biologics processing aids in the future by winning new customers from other industries such as cosmetics. We anticipate annual volume growth of an estimated over 10%.

Strategy

  • Organic growth driven by sustainable solutions for emerging markets, new business models and targeted acquisitions
  • Efficient production structures through strong integration of standard products into the Verbund

In the Nutrition & Care segment, we strive to expand our position as a leading provider of nutrition and care ingredients for consumer applications. We aim to enhance our technology capabilities in fields such as biotechnology and broaden our product portfolio with bio-based and biodegradable innovations. Targeted acquisitions complement our focus on emerging markets, new business models and sustainability trends in consumer markets. A strong integration of various standard products such as surfactants and vitamins into the Verbund enables efficient production structures and cost leadership.

Future growth in our markets will be driven by trends like growing consumer awareness and the resulting demand for sustainable product solutions, natural and organic ingredients and their traceability. In addition, the shift toward individualization and local production supports new players and business models. Digitalization and a focused technology and product portfolio as well as close cooperation with our customers is crucial to meeting these dynamic market requirements both now and in the future.

Innovation will be the key driver here, which is why we offer our customers tailor-made solutions and new functionalities via product and process innovation. Research platforms focusing on bio-based and biodegradable products have been established to complement our existing portfolio.

We are working on innovative approaches beyond the existing purely chemical solutions with research and development in white biotech and fermentation technologies. Our enzymes unit, founded in 2018, centrally steers the research, technology and production of the enzyme businesses at BASF. In addition, this business unit markets enzymes directly. This allows us to focus and accelerate existing enzyme business in various industries.

In September 2019, BASF entered the market for natural flavors and fragrance ingredients with the acquisition of Isobionics, an innovation leader in biotechnology serving the global market for natural flavors and fragrances, and through a cooperation agreement with Conagen, Bedford, Massachusetts, a leader in biotechnology research.

For standard products such as vitamins or surfactants, we focus on backward integration in our Production Verbund’s value chains and cost leadership.

We expanded our existing ibuprofen production capacities in Bishop, Texas. Our expanded vitamin A production facilities in Ludwigshafen, Germany, will begin operation in 2021. BASF is also investing in its integrated complex for ethylene oxide and derivates such as surfactants at the Verbund site in Antwerp, Belgium.

To meet rising demand for high-performance and safe UV filters, BASF is investing in a new production line at the Kaohsiung site in Taiwan and plans to double its global Uvinul® A Plus production capacity by mid-2022. The product is a photostable UVA filter that reliably filters the sun’s dangerous UVA rays and provides protection against free radicals and skin damage.

By the end of 2021, BASF will increase its capacities for methane sulfonic acid by around 65% in response to growing cross-industry demand, strengthening its position as a leading global producer. This involves an investment to construct a new methane sulfonic acid plant at the Ludwigshafen site in Germany. Methane sulfonic acid is an organic acid used in numerous applications ranging from chemical and biofuel synthesis to industrial cleaning and metal surface treatment in the electronics industry.