BASF SE (Ludwigshafen, Germany; www.basf.com) will build a compounding plant for engineering plastics Ultramid (polyamide) and Ultradur (polybutylene terephthalate, PBT) compounds in Yesan, Chung Nam Province, Korea. The new plant is expected to begin construction by first half of 2014 and operations from the end of 2015, and will create more than 30 new jobs.
With an initial capacity of 36,000 metric tons per year (m.t./yr), the new plant will more than double the total compounding capacity of BASF’s engineering plastics in Korea. With this project and the capacity expansion of BASF´s compounding plant in Pudong/Shanghai, China, which has already been announced, BASF’s overall compounding capacities in Asia will increase from the current 130,000 to a total of 225,000 m.t./yr.
Similar to the compounding plant in Ansan, Korea and other Asian locations, the new plant in Yesan will produce Ultramid and Ultradur compounds. Ultramid and Ultradur are used, for example, in automotive parts as well as the electrical and electronics industry. Some innovative applications include seat structures, oil sump modules, sensors, engine mounts, connectors and highly integrated laser-structured electronic devices.