German chemical giant BASF (Ludwigshafen; www.basf.com) has given final approval for the long-planned EUR 10 bn investment in a new “Verbund” integrated site at Zhanjiang in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong.

The project, to be completed in stages up to 2030, was launched in July 2018 with a non-binding Memorandum of Understanding signed in Berlin by CEO Martin Brudermüller and Chinese officials in the presence of then-German chancellor Angela Merkel (see Plasteurope.com of 12.07.2018), followed by a framework agreement in early 2019 (see Plasteurope.com of 14.01.2019).

Downstream of BASF’s first wholly owned steam cracker in China with capacity for 1 mn t/y of ethylene, the first stages of the vast 9 km² Chinese complex will see construction of plants for production of petrochemicals, intermediates, plastics and facilities for compounding PA and PBT (see Plasteurope.com of 28.11.2019).

Bigger than the local site in Nanjing northwest of Shanghai, which is operated by BASF-YPC, a joint venture with Sinopec (Beijing; www.sinopecgroup.com/group/en), BASF’s second Chinese Verbund site will line up behind Ludwigshafen, Germany, and Antwerp, Belgium.

As the first plant to be completed, a thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) unit is planned go onstream in 2022. The cracker is expected to start up in 2026.

In explaining the choice of the South China location on Donghai Island, close to a deep-water port, Brudermüller noted that by 2030, China’s share of global chemical production will rise to nearly 50% and that chemistry has been recognised by Guangdong authorities as a driving force for numerous downstream industries.

For the first time, BASF is embedding sustainability into the framework of a production complex based on “fundamental circular economy concepts,” Brudermüller said, noting that an existing smart manufacturing concept is being further developed with an eye to maximising resource and energy efficiency and reducing environmental impact.

In 2019, BASF signed an agreement with local utility China Resources Power to draw renewable energy for the complex. “Green” electricity is expected to supply 100% of the needs of the petrochemicals and plastics plants (see Plasteurope.com of 28.06.2021).