BASF will construct a state-of-the-art production facility for superabsorbent polymers at its Verbund manufacturing site in Freeport, TX.

BASF will construct a state-of-the-art production facility for superabsorbent polymers at its Verbund manufacturing site in Freeport, TX. As a result, the company will decommission its Aberdeen, MS, and Portsmouth, VA, production operations once the new plant is fully operational. The new plant will begin operation in mid-2007. BASF is investing in a new polyisocyanate plant in the Shanghai Chemical Industry Park in Caojing, near Shanghai, China. Construction of the plant, with an annual capacity of around 8,000 metric tons, is to begin mid-2005. It is scheduled to go into operation at the end of 2006. The resulting polyisocyanates will supply the entire Asian market. The investment amounts to around $30 million. BASF-YPC Ltd. has successfully started up its methyl acrylate plant at its integrated petrochemical site in Nanjing, China. BASF-YPC is a 50/50 joint venture between BASF and Sinopec. BASF will expand the capacity of its world's largest plant for MDI (diphenylmethane diisocyanate) in Antwerp, Belgium, from a current figure of 360,000 metric tons per year to 450,000 metric tons per year. The expansion will be completed in the second quarter of 2005.