Germany's BASF starts building $10-billion petrochemical project in China

German chemical giant BASF has begun construction of its $10-billion (£7.8 billion) integrated petrochemicals project in China’s southern province of Guangdong, the company said in a statement on Saturday. The project based in the city of Zhanjiang will be China’s first wholly foreign-owned chemicals complex, for which a framework agreement was signed in January. It will primarily produce engineering plastics and thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU), and some petrochemical products widely used in automotive, electronics and new energy vehicles industries. The project’s first phase is expected to be launched in 2022, with production capacity of 60,000 tonnes per year (tpy), taking BASF’s total capacity of engineering plastics and TPU to 290,000 tpy in the Asia-Pacific region. BASF plans to employ a comprehensive smart manufacturing concept at the project, deploying automated packaging, high-tech control systems and automated guided vehicles, it added.