BASF plans new emulsion polymers plant in Freeport, Texas

22-Nov-12

BASF today announced its plans to build a new production plant for emulsion polymers at its integrated "Verbund" site in Freeport, Texas. The new plant will allow BASF to better serve the coatings, construction, adhesives, and paper industries by expanding the network of manufacturing locations and improve the backward integration of raw materials used in production. The new plant, which is expected to begin production in mid-2014, will create approximately 25 new jobs at the Freeport site. "The new plant strengthens our position as a leading supplier of emulsions in North America and demonstrates our commitment to customers in the coatings, construction, adhesives and paper industries," said Derek Fairclough, Senior Vice President, Dispersions & Pigments, for BASF in North America. "This investment further supports our business growth strategy, especially in architectural coatings, where we are targeting significant growth with our range of innovative products and solutions." The plant will manufacture acrylic emulsion polymers used for architectural coatings, construction chemicals, adhesives, and the paper chemicals industry. "This investment demonstrates BASF's commitment to the regional market demand by paper and board manufacturers for these materials and supports our global strategy to be the preferred supplier of polymer emulsions for the coated paper and board markets," said Chuck Schmidt, Senior Vice President, Paper Chemicals, for BASF in North America. BASF currently operates three emulsion polymer plants in North America in Monaca, Pennsylvania; Chattanooga, Tennessee; and Altamira, Mexico. Building a plant in Texas broadens the supply network to better serve all BASF customers from a manufacturing location in the central-southern United States. In addition to this investment, BASF is building new manufacturing facilities for emulsion polymers in India and the company also opened new plants in South Africa in September 2012 and in China in November 2012. The Verbund concept is one of BASF's greatest strengths, linking production and energy requirements in an efficient manner. BASF's Freeport, Texas production site incorporates the Verbund concept and allows BASF to maximize the production efficiencies of acrylic dispersions while helping to protect the environment and surrounding communities by reducing waste, cutting emissions, and keeping resource consumption and transportation to a minimum.