In the South America, Africa, Middle East region, sales by location of company declined by 4 percent. This was due to unfavorable conditions in the agro business as a result of extremely dry weather in parts of South America. EBIT before special items fell by 73 percent.
The Asia Pacific region continues to demonstrate rapid growth. BASF increased sales by location of company by 24 percent and EBIT before special items by 34 percent.
“China continues to be the most powerful engine for growth in the region. They want to increase the performance of this engine even further through major investments in China, in particular the startup of their Verbund site with the partner Sinopec in Nanjing,” said Hambrecht.
In Nanjing, the two partners have invested $2.9 billion in their joint venture BASF-YPC. With its steam cracker and nine downstream plants, the new site has an annual capacity of 1.7 million metric tons of high-quality chemicals.
BASF also announced that it had recently put the world's largest PolyTHF complex into full production at the integrated site in Caojing near Shanghai. PolyTHF is an important component in the production of spandex fibers for the textile industry.
The new plants are an important step in achieving the company's strategic goals in Asia: By 2010, BASF aims to generate 20 percent of sales and earnings in its chemical activities in Asia Pacific.
World's leading chemical company BASF, portfolio ranges from chemicals, plastics, performance products, agricultural products and fine chemicals to crude oil and natural gas. As a reliable partner to virtually all industries, BASF's intelligent solutions and high-value products help its customers to be more successful. BASF develops new technologies and uses them to open up additional market opportunities.
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