BASF has added an additional production line to its existing facilities with an aim to expand its antioxidant production capacity in Singapore. The additional capacity will cater to the rapidly-growing Asia Pacific and Middle East markets.

With an action plan to promote ‘green petrochemical clusters’, the Chinese southern province of Guangdong wants to encourage further growth in the industry. The ambitious plans are valid up to 2025, i.e. parallel to the People's Republic's new five-year plan, which is currently being tied up in the corridors of power in Beijing. What is the industry’s future in the region?

BASF has started up a new methane sulfonic acid (MSA) plant at its Verbund site in Ludwigshafen, Germany in the background of growing demand for MSA across the globe. The investment is expected to increase capacity at the site to a total of 50,000 metric tons annually.

In a recent announcement by BASF, the company has undertaken the decision to wind down its operations in Russia, Belarus due to the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine. However, the food production business will be sparred as the firm fears a global food crisis in the midst of the war.

The proprietary ‘Star’ dehydrogenation process which can produce propylene from propane feedstocks or iso-butylene from iso-butane feedstocks has been optimized by thyssenkrupp Uhde and BASF. The technology is now capable of reducing CO2 emissions and operating costs through lower energy consumption by up to 30 %.

The production capacity of crude oil in China's refineries climbed to a new record high in June. Analysts see this as a sign of the rapid recovery of the Chinese economy. However, market observers and Chinese officials see the current overcapacities and the corona crisis as increased pressure to reform the country's oil processing industry.

China is catching up in the fine chemcials sector. The communist state and party leadership in Beijing intends to use a series of targeted support measures to accelerate the development of the industry in order to become more self-sufficient towards foreign countries.

BASF Venture Capital is investing $ 2 million into Alchemist Accelerator’s fund, allocating at least half towards investments in 3D printing, agtech, material informatics, nutrition, and technology game-changers.

BASF has recently announced that Livio Tedeschi will succeed Vincent Gros to become the President of BASF's Agricultural Solutions Division in Germany w.e.f April 1, 2022.

China’s GDP shrunk 6.8 % in the last quarter as compared with a year earlier. The country’s chemical manufacturing output declined by 21 % and profits by 66 % in the first two months of 2020 due to the coronavirus scenario. However, now with the virus defeated, the East Asian nation hopes to improve these figures.