BASF unveils Asia-Pacific investment plan

Following the inauguration of the BASF Innovation Campus Asia Pacific in Shanghai, it is also considering establishing a second innovation campus in the region.

"We will start a new wave of investment, expected to be more than 10 million euros, to expand the newly established innovation center," said Heuser.

Materials for sports shoes, for instance, will be researched at the center, not only for the Chinese market, but for global markets as well, Heuser said.

"We will extend our R&D from Pudong, a core service platform in Asia Pacific, into Japan and South Korea to develop battery materials and electronic chemicals," he said.

BASF also is investing around $121 million to set up a world-scale production plant at the Shanghai Chemical Industry Park to produce high-performance resins and electro coatings.

The launch of the production line is planned for the second half of 2015 to address the increasing demand for high-quality coatings solutions in growing industries, notably the automotive industry, in Asia Pacific.

"The continued investment in our infrastructure and capacity demonstrates our strong commitment to supporting our customers' growing business in the automotive market in the Asia-Pacific region, particularly in China," said Peter Fischer, senior vice-president of BASF Coatings Solutions Asia Pacific. "With the new plant in place, we are able to respond to customers even quicker and further enhance our efficiency of logistics."

His words were echoed by Heuser.

"We must follow our automaker customers, who are moving production facilities to the country's western area," he said.

Investment, Heuser added, will be injected into Chong-qing, Maoming in Guangdong province and into the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region to meet demand from local customers.

The heavily funded strategy in Asia Pacific aims to increase sales in the region from this year's 11.7 billion euros to 25 billion euros in 2020, which represents an annual 9 percent growth rate, Heuser said.