BASF Inaugurates Its Largest Surface Treatment Site

BASF Opens Largest Global Surface Treatment Plant The Surface Treatment global business unit of BASF's Coatings division, operating under the Chemetall brand, has inaugurated its state-of-the-art surface treatment production site in Pinghu City, Zhejiang Province, China. The new facility was built as a smart factory, supporting numerous digital applications and automation. Spanning 60,000 square meters, the Pinghu site is BASF's first production facility in the Dushan Port Economic Development Zone and its largest surface treatment site worldwide. "In July this year, we expanded our production capacity of automotive refinish coatings at our Jiangmen site in Guangdong Province. Today, we celebrate the opening of our new surface treatment site in Pinghu. We are strategically positioned close to our customers to meet local demand for our advanced and proven solutions. Our goal is to be a growth-oriented surface technology leader, providing sustainable solutions, services, expertise and innovations that support our customers across various industries and in our key growth market – China," commented Uta Holzenkamp, President, Coatings Division, BASF. "Asia Pacific is the world's fastest growing surface treatment market and China accounts for approximately 50% of the market in the region. We expect the China market will show attractive growth rates in the medium to long term. By localizing our cutting-edge processes and solutions, such as our thin-film technology Oxsilan®, we are strengthening our leading position in China and we will significantly reduce delivery times to our local customers," said Christophe Cazabeau, Senior Vice President, Coatings Division, BASF. The Pinghu site, which was designed as a smart factory, enables high levels of process automation and complete digitalization of site operations for improved manufacturing and logistics efficiency. The new facility serves a wide range of market segments, including automotive OEM and component suppliers, coil, general industry, cold forming, aerospace, aluminum finishing, and glass, with an extensive portfolio of applied surface treatment products and solutions.   Source