BASF starts up production plant for specialty amines in Ludwigshafen

Global leadership position in specialty amines strengthened.

“With the new plant, we are responding to our customers’ growing demand for specialty amines, particularly in Europe,” said Dr Stefan Blank, President, BASF Intermediates division. “We have decades of experience in developing and manufacturing amines and with the current expansion we are extending our global leadership in these versatile intermediates.”

“The special plant structure allows us to react flexibly to changes in the need for the various products. In addition, we can also produce commercial quantities of products from our innovation pipeline here,” said Dr Christoph Wegner, Senior Vice President, heading the regional business unit Amines Europe within BASF’s Intermediates division, and adds: “Being integrated into the BASF Verbund at the Ludwigshafen site also allows us to offer our customers, apart from research, the scale-up services through a pilot plant, all the way to the new multi-product plant.”

With about 200 different amines, BASF has the world’s most diverse portfolio of these chemical intermediates. In addition to alkylamines, alkanolamines and alkoxyalkylamines, the company also offers heterocyclic and aromatic amines as well as specialty amines. The range is completed by an expanding portfolio of chiral amines with high optical and chemical purity. The versatile products have proven their effectiveness above all in the manufacture of crop protection products and pharmaceuticals, as well as in cosmetics, detergents and process chemicals. They are also needed to produce coatings, special plastics, composites and special fibers.