BASF Opens $22.5M Personal Care Additives Plant in China

German chemical giant BASF held an inauguration ceremony on June 2 to mark the opening of its new cosmetics and skin care additives manufacturing plant in Shanghai, China in a move signaling the firm’s intent to grow in the country’s personal care products market.

“With more sophisticated consumers, thanks to fast and abundant information on social media, we expect greater demand for more technologically advanced, effective and sustainable personal care solutions,” said Dr. Zheng Daquing, senior vice president of business and market development in greater China at BASF, in a company press release. “The inauguration of this new plant in Shanghai will help us better serve our customers locally with steady and timely supply of quality products to meet the growing market demand in China.”

Located in the Jinshan district of Shanghai, BASF invested about $22.5 million in the project. 15,000 tn of emollients and waxes for end use as additives in personal care products like skin cream and cosmetics will be produced at the site per year, according to a press release issued by the government of Shanghai’s Jinshan District.

“Now we can combine the scientific research power of our Innovation Campus Asia Pacific in Shanghai with the capabilities of the new state-of-the-art multi-purpose production facility in Jinshan, for the benefit of our consumers in China and also in all of Asia Pacific,” said Sergey Andreev, senior vice president of BASF Care Chemicals Asia Pacific, in the company’s release.

BASF said the new plant will focus on production with varying levels of high temperature reactions to manufacture a wide array of product formats. A few products at the Shanghai site are made with natural feedstocks like palm oil and palm kernel oil.