BASF inaugurates two new plants in Freeport

Freeport/Texas – BASF has inaugurated two new manufacturing plants at its site in Freeport,Texas: a production line for polyamide 6 (picture) and a plant for superabsorbent polymers (SAP). The polyamide production line replaces a facility in Enka, North Carolina. The new line has an annual capacity of 120,000 metric tons per year, and the caprolactam feedstock is supplied by another BASF plant at the Freeport site. “With this latest step in BASF’s consolidation strategy, Freeport is now the manufacturing base for BASF’s entire polyamide intermediates and polymers business in North America,” said Dr. Harald Lauke, president of BASF’s Performance Polymers division. The new superabsorbent polymers manufacturing facility is supplied with a key raw material, acrylic acid, from another BASF plant at the Freeport site which provides major competitive advantages in terms of logistics and product quality. The new SAP plant has a capacity of 180,000 metric tons per year and replaces existing facilities in Aberdeen, Mississippi and Portsmouth, Virginia.