BASF Building New Crop Protection Manufacturing Hub

German chemicals and materials firm BASF broke ground Wednesday on a new manufacturing hub in Singapore for crop protection products to increase production for customers across Asia Pacific.

“The new plant is a key strategic investment for BASF as it seeks to expand its Agricultural Solutions business in Asia Pacific. The company chose Singapore as the best site for the new facility because of BASF’s existing infrastructure, which allows a relatively fast production start,” Gustavo Palerosi Carneiro, head of BASF’s Agricultural Solutions business in Asia Pacific, said in a company press release announcing the project. “In addition, Singapore’s status as a world-class logistics hub, alongside its free trade agreements with most Asia Pacific markets, make it the ideal location for a facility of this nature.”

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The facility will have six different formulation technologies and a production capacity of 7 million ltr/yr when it becomes operational in Q3 2021. BASF will hire more than 25 workers for the site. 

“With this new facility, we will be able to help farmers in Asia, including many smallholders, improve the productivity and sustainability of their farms,” said BASF Agricultural Solutions President Vincent Gros in a statement. “We are very optimistic about the future of agriculture in the region, and the potential for Singapore to help serve as a hub for agricultural technology for Asia Pacific.”

BASF revealed plans on Thursday to increase its production of water-based polyurethane dispersions by 30% with a “single-digit million-euro” investment in its facility in Castellbisbal, Spain. Earlier this month, the firm said it was making a “higher double-digit million euro” investment to expand methane sulfonic acid (MSA) production at its Ludwigshafen Verbund facility by 50,000 tn/yr. 

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