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Photo: BASF Zhanjiang Verbund site by Jan 2024. Credit: BASF 

The new smart Verbund site will include a steam cracker with a capacity of 1 million metric tons of ethylene per year and downstream plants for consumer-oriented products. By utilizing the latest digital technologies and applying the highest safety standards, the site will be built into a role model for smart manufacturing and sustainable production.

The first plant producing engineering plastics has been announced to be put into inauguration in September 2022. The second plant for the production of thermoplastic polyurethanes (TPU) announced its inauguration in January 2024. Both plants will serve the increasing needs of various growth industries in southern China and throughout Asia. The site is now focusing on building its core of the Verbund and is expected to be put into operation by the end of 2025, including a steam cracker and several downstream plants to produce petrochemicals and intermediates, among others.

19^th Jul 2022, BASF gives final approval for € 10bn Zhanjiang project in China

BASF had started construction of the first plants at the site in 2020.

• It is starting up the first engineered plastics unit. A plant that will make thermoplastic polyurethanes (TPUs) should start up in 2023.
• Units in phase 1 of the project should start up in 2025 and more units should start up in 2028 in phase 2, BASF CEO Martin Brudermuller stated on October 2021.
• A 1m tonne/year cracker could use naphtha and butane.
• Ethylene will be fully consumed to produce ethylene oxide (EO) and ethylene glycol (EG), along with around 500,000 tonnes/year of high density PE (HDPE). The project will mark BASF’s entry into the global PE market.
• Additional capacities in the ethylene chain will include around 800,000 tonnes/year of EG and 220,000 tonnes/year of nonionic surfactants.
• Propylene will feed into acrylics and oxo-alcohols production, which will then be used for further downstream products.
• Capacities in the propylene chain will include around 400,000 tonnes/year of butyl acrylate, 100,000 tonnes/year of ethyl hexyl acrylate and 80,000 tonnes/year of neopentyl glycol.
• Crude C₄ will be used for isobutene extraction to support the citral value chain.
• BASF may consider adding methylene diphenyl diisocyanate (MDI) and toluene diisocyanate (TDI) capacity.

The China Verbund complex will use the latest carbon mitigation technologies including electrification, supporting BASF’s target of reducing carbon emissions by 25% by 2030, on the path to net zero carbon emissions by 2050. It will also use renewable energy.