Global Chemical giant BASF’s Coatings division has opened a new €140 million world-scale automotive coatings plant at the Shanghai Chemical Industry Park (SCIP) in Caojing, Shanghai, China. The state-of-the-art facility will be a production hub for solventborne and waterborne coatings, closely connected to the company’s existing infrastructure for automotive coatings, resins and electrocoat production as well as R&D laboratories. The project is an extension of the existing automotive coatings plant, a joint venture between BASF and Shanghai Huayi Fine Chemical Co., Ltd.

The new plant will produce thinners, primers, clearcoats and waterborne basecoats. It will be supported by a new automotive application center providing automotive manufacturers access to advanced R&D facilities, including a 3-D robot for coatings application at the BASF Innovation Campus Asia Pacific (Shanghai), by end of 2018.

The expansion is aimed at enhancing company’s local production and better serve the growing automotive market in China and Asia Pacific. In 2016, 48.6 million light vehicle units were produced in the Asia Pacific region, accounting for 52% of global production.

According to Dirk Bremn, President of BASF’s Cating Division, “The global automotive market is expected to continue to grow significantly, with China as the biggest driver. The inauguration of this new plant in Shanghai will help us to support the growth of our customers and take an active role in developing the Chinese automotive market.”

“With the addition of this new automotive coatings plant to our production cluster in SCIP, we have further strengthened our local production capacity to support our customer industries. Together with our partners, we contribute to facilitating the innovative and sustainable development of China’s industrial sector,” said Stephan Kothrade, President, Functions Asia Pacific and President & Chairman Greater China, BASF.