BASF targets to double its sales in Asia over the next ten years

01-Oct-09

The world's largest chemical maker BASF is targeting to double its sales in Asia by 2020 and invest €2 bln (US$2.9 bln) there through 2013. It is planning to grow 2 percentage points faster than the region's market, which could consume almost 46% of the world's chemicals by 2020. BASF has taken this decision to invest close to its customers. Trigerred by government's 4 trillion yuan (US$590 bln) stimulus package, China is seeing a growth of 8.5% in the third quarter, 7.9% in the second quarter and 6.1% in the first quarter. Though business in Asia is not at a desired level, signals out of Asia are more promising than in Europe and North America. 20% of group sales and operating profit would come out of Asia next year, and 70% of revenues in the regions would be produced locally. Investments and potential takeovers are needed to maintain that ratio over the next ten years. BASF and its partner, Sinopec Corp, started expansion of their JV in Nanjing at an investment outlay of US$1.4 billion on new plants and on an upgrade to an existing steam cracker. In Chongqing, BASF is planning to construct a 400,000 tpa plant for MDI.