BASF SE has completed the expansion at its compounding plant at its Schwarzheide site in Germany, first announced in 2015. The expanded facility was put into operation today, the company announced.
With the expansion of the plant, up to 70,000 metric tons more of the company's Ultramid nylon and Ultradur polybutylene terephthalate materials can be produced each year, bringing BASF's annual worldwide compounding capacity for nylon and PBT up to more than 700,000 tonnes.
The increase in production capacity was made necessary by the rising global demand for engineering plastics, said the company, which added that, as a result of the capacity expansion, some 50 new jobs would be created.
Schwarzheide has the largest nylon and PBT compounding capacity within BASF globally. The additional capacity enhances the flexibility of the company's global production network, enabling the higher expectations of, for example, the automotive industry to be met when it comes to the production of high-volume components.
“The bigger plant enables us to accompany our customers' growth in the long run,” says Jürgen Becky, who took over BASF's business unit Performance Materials Europe in May.
“The expanded plant represents state-of-the-art technology in the plastics market and gives us even more flexibility in our production process.”
BASF's engineering plastics Ultramid and Ultradur are used to make high-performance components mainly for the automotive, electrical and electronics industries. The components include oil pans, engine mounts, sensors and connectors, chairs and fastening elements.
