BASF to invest €200 mln for Antwerp cracker expansion

01-Sep-05

BASF plans to expand its naphtha steam cracker capacity at the company's site in Antwerp, Belgium, at an investment outlay of €200 million. This will raise ethylene capacity from 800,000 metric tpa to 1.08 million metric tpa, making the plant the largest single-train steam cracker in Europe. The expansion project will take advantage of the next regular plant turnaround scheduled for Q3 2007, and will be conducted during that period to avoid any additional shutdown. 2007 has been pin pointed as the right time for the expansion, based on evaluation internal demand developments and the external market situation for cracker products. 2007 has been estimated to be the next peak in the petrochem cycle. No major new cracker projects are foreseen in Europe until 2009, and in view of projected average demand growth of 1 to 1.5% pa, the additional ethylene volumes will fit into the market The expansion of the Antwerp cracker, an investment with a special strategic importance, is the starting point for BASF's essential value chains. BASF operates other steam crackers in Ludwigshafen, Germany; Port Arthur, Texas; and Nanjing, China.