Center to accelerate innovation at BASF chemical plant in Guangdong

South China's Guangdong province is expecting to advance cooperation with German chemical giant BASF to promote technological innovation and accelerate productivity to build a world-class industry cluster in the coming years.

Wang Weizhong, governor of Guangdong, said China is the world's largest chemical market, and Guangdong is an important petrochemical base in the country, while BASF is a global leader in the chemical industry. "Guangdong and BASF have broad prospects and huge potential for further deepening cooperation," Wang said.

Wang made the remarks when meeting BASF chairman Martin Brudermuller on Friday. Brudermuller was in Guangdong to attend the inauguration of BASF's Verbund Technology Center in Zhanjiang, a port city in western Guangdong.

In addition to participating in the inauguration of the center, Wang and Brudermuller discussed expanding cooperation and accelerating construction of BASF's Zhanjiang Verbund Site project, which involves an investment of more than 10 billion euros ($11 billion).

"After more than five years of sincere cooperation, BASF's Zhanjiang Verbund Site construction has continuously made significant progress and achieved fruitful results, fully reflecting the speed of Guangdong in the new era and the efficiency of BASF," Wang said.

Wang promised to accelerate the building of a market-oriented international business environment based on the rule of law and provide even better services to foreign companies in Guangdong in the coming years.

Brudermuller said Guangdong has unique advantages in technological innovation, with abundant resources and strong capabilities.

"BASF has always been firmly optimistic about Guangdong and investing in the province, hoping to focus on the development of the entire green petrochemical industry chain, and further expand cooperation between the two sides in areas such as technological innovation, process research and development, green environmental protection and intelligent manufacturing," he said.

"BASF will further enhance its innovation capabilities in the southern Chinese region, helping customers reduce carbon emissions, conserve energy and promote environmentally friendly production.

"The official launch of the VTC in Zhanjiang will further promote collaborative innovation between BASF and various sectors, advance towards intelligent integrated bases and green lighthouse projects, and provide a larger platform for cultivating innovative talent."

The Verbund Site project in Zhanjiang is BASF's largest single investment project in China, and is independently constructed and operated by BASF. After completion, the base will become BASF's third-largest production base globally, following Ludwigshafen, Germany, and Antwerp, Belgium.

Haryono Lim, president of BASF's Mega Projects Asia, said the technology center is dedicated to the research and development of the Verbund Site's progress optimization, digitalization and sustainable development.

"The VTC will serve as our nucleus to stimulate more made-in-Zhanjiang innovation as it is located at the heart of our production site," he said.

"The center will become an innovation-driven growth engine to accelerate Verbund-related technology transformation, which underlines BASF's global strategy on innovation and contributes to China's innovation-driven development strategy.

"It is another important step on our path of building the Zhanjiang Verbund Site as a lighthouse project."

By enhancing BASF's innovation capacities in South China, the center is poised to ensure safe operations and long-term competitiveness through continuous improvement of resource efficiency, manufacturing reliability and helping customers with carbon footprint reduction, he added.