Sales of 8.5 billion euros! BASF's business in Greater China continues to expand!

Recently, Ke Diwen, President and Chairman of BASF Greater China, stated that BASF's sales in Greater China will be approximately 8.5 billion euros in 2020, an increase of 16% from the 74 euros in 2019. At present, Greater China has become BASF's second largest market in the world, second only to the United States.

Stephan Kothrade, President and Chairman of BASF Greater China, BASF also released the "Greater China 2020 Annual Report." The report shows that the BASF Group's global sales in 2020 will be 59.149 billion euros, and its pre-interest and tax earnings will be -191 million euros. Its sales in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific were 16.44 billion, 24.223 billion, and 14.895 billion euros respectively, and its pre-interest and tax earnings were -201 million, -10.05 billion, and 768 million euros, respectively.

According to the report, the company has continuously expanded its investment in local production and R&D in the past few years. In 2020, the first batch of BASF integrated facilities in Zhanjiang, Guangdong will start construction. After completion in 2030, this base with an investment of US$10 billion will become BASF's third largest integrated base in the world. The first installations of the project will produce engineering plastics and thermoplastic polyurethane.

In 2020, BASF established a biodegradable laboratory in the Shanghai Innovation Park to respond to the demand for biodegradability. At the same time, BASF has strengthened its cooperation with academia. In 2020, it established the Asian Open Research Network (NAO) Academic Advisory Committee and signed a strategic cooperation framework agreement with the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).

According to the report, BASF's sustainable development goal is to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. In 2020, BASF's total greenhouse gas emissions from chemical production and operations in Greater China will fall for the fourth consecutive year to 1.101 million tons. In 2019, it emitted 1.109 million tons. BASF Greater China generated 252 tons of air pollutants from chemical production and operations. In 2019, the emissions were 299 tons, a year-on-year decrease of 16%. This is partly due to the investment and transformation of NMVOC (dust and non-methane volatile organic compounds) treatment processes in multiple production bases.

The report also shows that BASF continues to strengthen digital applications. For example, during the epidemic, operators are allowed to wear virtual augmented reality (AR) holographic lenses to conduct remote security inspections of factory installations.

"Digitalization will also bring benefits to customers. For example, catalysts play an important role in reducing automobile emissions. We print a QR code on each catalyst, and customers can scan the QR code to understand product information, including metal content, manufacturing Details, safe use methods, etc., this kind of traceability information will help the product reuse and recycling in the future." said Morrison, senior vice president of operations and base management, BASF Greater China.

In addition, BASF launched a fully automated order system in the official flagship store of 1688, enabling real-time data transmission between the company’s back-end order system and Alibaba’s online trading platform, thereby reducing the time from customers’ order to delivery from a few days to 2 -3 hours.