LUDWIGSHAFEN, GERMANY/SUFFOLK, US: BASF will consolidate the production of polyacrylamide (PAM) beads into its Bradford facility, Great Britain, where the company operates a backward integrated production plant with worldwide supply capability. The company will make significant investment to increase the bead production capacity at the Bradford site.
Due to the consolidation, BASF intends to close down its PAM bead production unit at Suffolk, Virginia, effective January 2012. The production unit was considered small to support the strong growth path for BASF’s water treatment and oilfield and mining chemicals businesses in North America. About 50 BASF employees will be affected.
For the business segment, BASF has planned investment in world-scale backward integrated production plants for water treatment and paper chemicals in Nanjing, China, with capacities of 40,000 tonne of quaternized cationic monomers and 20,000 tonne of cationic polyacrylamides per year. It will also carry out significant capacity expansions for cationic monomers in West Memphis, Arkansas and for inverse emulsions in Suffolk, Virginia.
“BASF is well positioned to meet the growing customer demand in the water treatment industry. The consolidation of PAM bead production will strengthen our business. Together with our focused investment at the West Memphis and Suffolk sites, it will also support BASF’s profitable growth strategy for North America. Presently, North America plays a central role in our global water solutions strategy,” explained Dr Matthias Halusa, Head, Water Solutions business, BASF.
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