Industrial Info Tracking $3.2 Billion in BASF Projects

Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Global chemical processor BASF SE (Ludwigshafen, Germany) recently confirmed its economic outlook for 2018, including slight sales and earnings growth in the shadow of international trade conflicts involving the U.S., China and Europe. Industrial Info is tracking $3.21 billion in capital project activity by BASF, about half of which is in the U.S.

Click on the image at right for a graph showing BASF project activity in the U.S.

"Global economic risks increased significantly over the course of the first half of 2018, driven by geopolitical developments and the trade conflicts between the United States and China, as well as between the United States and Europe," said Martin Brudermüller, chairman of the Board of Executive Directors of BASF, in a recent earnings press release. "We are monitoring these developments and the potential effects on our business very closely."

For 2018, BASF plans capital expenditures of about 4.0 billion euros (US$4.6 billion). One of the top projects is the capacity expansion under construction at BASF's methylene diphenyl diisocyanate (MDI) plant in Geismar, Louisiana. The new MDI-3 unit will double the plant's capacity to 600,000 tons per year. Completion is expected in mid-2020. For more information, see Industrial Info's project report.

For the period of 2018-2022, BASF expects total investments in property, plants and equipment to be 19.0 billion euros (US$22 billion), with 54% earmarked for its European operations, and 19% for North America.

At the BASF and Total Petrochemicals LLC joint-venture facility in Port Arthur, Texas, plans are underway to revamp an existing 75,000-barrel-per-day condensate splitter by adding a C5 chemical splitter. Construction is expected to kick off in mid-2019, with completion in fourth-quarter 2019. For more information, see Industrial Info's project report. Also at Port Arthur, BASF continues to develop a preliminary design for an ethylene unit optimization project, which would kick off construction in first-quarter 2019, with a mid-year completion. For more information, see Industrial Info's project report.

In Cincinnati, Ohio, site preparation is underway for a specialty chemical plant renovation and expansion, including the dismantlement and demolition of an idled hydrogenation unit and fatty alcohol unit. The project is expected to be completed in third-quarter 2019. For more information, see Industrial Info's project report.

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