BASF will increase production capacity at its Geismar plant by 10% in the coming year, bringing its total global capacity for production of a chemical known as 1,4-butanediol, or BDO—which is used to make plastics, solvents, electronic chemicals and elastic fibers—to 670,000 metric tons per year by 2016.
BASF, which announced the increased capacity today, says it will also examine further measures to strengthen and to expand its BDO value chain at the Geismar site. The company says it is increasing capacity in Geismar because of growing customer demand, and as it does it will look to implement new measures to boost efficiency and improve infrastructure.
BASF, the world’s largest producer of BDO, also makes the chemical at its global headquarters site in Ludwigshafen, Germany, as well as at plants in Kuantan, Malaysia; Caojing, China; and Chiba, Japan. In addition to those sites, BASF and Chinese company Xinjiang Markor are partnering to begin production of 100,000 metric tons of BDO per year at a Chinese plant later this year.
“Being the leading producer of BDO globally, we continue to expand our production capacity step wise to support the growth of our customers as a reliable partner,” says BASF Intermediates Division President Stefan Blank in a prepared statement.
