BASF, Sinopec ink $500m Nanjing expansion deal

10 July 2006 11:33  [Source: ICIS news]

SINGAPORE (ICIS news)--BASF has signed a $500m (€391.2m) agreement with Chinese partner Sinopec to expand their joint venture cracker and build new downstream units, the German chemicals major said on Monday.

Their joint venture, BASF-YPC, will expand the capacity of its 600,000 tonnes/year cracker in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, to 750,000 tonnes/year, it added.

It will also expand its ethylene oxide (EO) plant by 80,000 tonnes/year and build an 80,000 tonnes/year butylglycol ether unit and a 60,000 tonnes/year non-ionic surfactants unit. BASF-YPC operates a 350,000 tonnes/year ethylene glycol (EG) plant, but its EO capacity was not available.

The company will also expand its 250,000 tonnes/year oxo-alcohols unit’s capacity to 300,000 tonnes/year to provide butanol feedstock for the proposed butylglycol ether unit, BASF said.

It will also build a 100,000-120,000 tonnes/year butadiene extraction unit, a 120,000 tonnes/year 2-propylheptanol (2-PH) unit, an 80,000 tonnes/year isobutene extraction unit, a 50,000 tonnes/year polyisobutene unit and a 30,000 tonnes/year polyisobutene amine unit.

BASF-YPC will also extend its acrylics chain by building a 60,000 tonnes/year super absorbent polymers (SAP) unit.

The expansions and new units are expected to come on stream in 2009, BASF said.

BASF and Sinopec have also agreed to integrate their second joint operation in Nanjing, Yangzi-BASF Styrenics, into BASF-YPC to increase efficiency.

The agreement shows BASF’s long-term commitment to China’s growing chemical market, said its chairman Jurgen Hambrecht. Sinopec’s president Chen Tonghai added that it would further strengthen cooperation between Sino-German firms.

Both companies invested $2.9bn in the first phase of the 50:50 joint venture.

BASF-YPC also operates a 300,000 tonnes/year aromatics plant, a 400,000 tonnes/year low-density polyethylene/ethylene vinyl acetate (ldPE/EVA) plant, and a 160,000 tonnes/year acrylic acid plant. It also produces formic acid, propionic acid, methylamine and dimethylformamide (DMF).

By: Florence Tan
+65 6780 4359

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