BASF Invests $30 MM To Build Acrylates Complex in Sao Paulo

03 August 1998 00:00  [Source: ICB Americas]

By Charles Thurston

BASF AG unveiled plans last week to build a $30 million butyl acrylate plant in Guaratinguet, state of Sao Paulo, Brazil, to serve the growing market for acrylic acid and dispersions used in the coatings and non-woven textile sectors. The company is also considering the addition of glacial acrylic acid for the plant to meet demand for superabsorbents used in diapers and other non-woven products.

The butyl acrylate investment follows the completion earlier this year of the companyÕs $18 million investment in a new plant that produces waterborne intermediates for cathodic electrodeposition paints at Sao Bernardo do Campo, near Sao Paulo.

The paint plant serves BrazilÕs automotive industry. BASF invested a total of $113 million in its Brazilian operations in 1997, following investments of $70 million the year before. The company has other production facilities in Santa Cruz, near Rio de Janeiro; in Jaboatao, near Recife; and in Porto Alegre.

The latest investment in butyl acrylate capacity, which will come on stream in 2001, will complement existing acrylic dispersions capacity at the Guaratinguet site. BASF produces dispersions, pigments, dyes and auxiliaries, vitamins and crop protection agents at Guaratinguet, its largest complex in South America. Additional plastics capacity is expected to come on stream in August.

The demand for acrylic monomers in the Mercosur regionÑincluding Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and UruguayÑis expected to outpace the regional growth of gross domestic product. Given low internal tariff barriers, the Brazilian capacity could serve any of the Mercosur markets.

BASF has made a major set of investments in South America, including its Brazilian, Argentinian and Colombian operations. Investments made in Argentina last year amounted to more than $17 million and investments in Colombia were over $8 million in 1997.

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