BASF and SINOPEC have announced they will build a new world-scale production plant for Neopentylglycol (NPG) at their state-of-the-art Verbund site, BASF-YPC Co., Ltd., a 50-50 joint venture in Nanjing, China. The plant, with a total annual capacity of about 40,000 metric tons, is planned to go on stream at the end of 2015. The new NPG plant will benefit from backward integration into the Nanjing Verbund site, allowing high delivery reliability and maximizing efficient use of energy and resources.

NPG is a unique polyalcohol offering superior performance in many end-use applications such as lubricants, coatings, textiles and construction due to its high chemical and thermal stability. It is mainly used as a building block in polyester resins for coatings, unsaturated polyester and alkyd resins, lubricants and plasticizers. As the global market leader, BASF has NPG production facilities in Ludwigshafen, Germany; Freeport, USA and Jilin, China.

“With this new plant, we are responding to our customers’ growing demand for high-quality neopentylglycol, especially in the Asia Pacific region, and at the same time strengthening our position as the global leading supplier of NPG,” said Sanjeev Gandhi, President, BASF Intermediates division. “We have 55 years of experience in manufacturing and supplying neopentylglycol to our customers across a broad range of industries.”

“With this project, SINOPEC and BASF are fully utilizing their strengths regarding resources, technology, talent and management. Furthermore with this investment we are building on the core competitiveness of both partners,” said Mr. Wang Jingyi, Chairman and General Manager of Sinopec YPC and Chairman of BASF-YPC.