SHANGHAI – BASF is investing around €90 million to set up a world-scale production plant at the Shanghai Chemical Industry Park in Shanghai, China. The new plant will produce high-performance resins and electrocoat (e-coat). Startup of the production line is planned for the second half of 2015. The plant will help to address the increasing demand for coatings in growing industries, most notably the automotive industry, in Asia-Pacific.

This new resin and e-coat plant will be located adjacent to another new BASF automotive coatings plant, which broke ground in early 2013. The close proximity of these two plants will allow for more synergies and efficiency.

Applying the latest technologies, BASF’s new plant will also supply CathoGuard^® 800, an e-coat that is ideally suited for the new standard of integrated coatings application processes and contains less than one percent solvents. E-coat is a critical coating layer in automotive production, protecting a car’s surfaces, edges and cavities from corrosion, as well as being the base for applying subsequent paint layers.

BASF’s Coatings division develops, produces and markets a range of automotive OEM coatings, automotive refinishes and industrial coatings as well as decorative paints. BASF has significant market positions in the coatings sector in Europe, North America, South America and the Asia-Pacific region.