BASF has broken ground on a polyethylene (PE) plant at its Verbund site in Zhanjiang, China. The new plant with a capacity of 500,000 metric tons of PE annually will serve the fast-growing demand in China. The plant is scheduled to start up in 2025.

“China’s demand for PE has experienced rapid growth and is going to outpace the rest of the world,” said Bir Darbar Mehta, Senior Vice President of Petrochemicals Asia Pacific at BASF. “With the groundbreaking ceremony, BASF will enter the PE market in China via a competitive production footprint in its fully integrated production site in Zhanjiang, catering to our customers in the consumer goods, packaging, construction and transportation industries.”

“Strategically located close to our customers, the Zhanjiang Verbund site is fully backward integrated to provide them with high quality and reliable PE products for a wide range of durable applications, including pipes, specialty films and blow molded parts for household and industrial chemical containers, especially in the South China market,” said Bejoy Chandran, Vice President of Basic Business Management & China Sales Management, Petrochemicals Asia Pacific at BASF.

Polyethylene is a light, versatile thermoplastic polymer produced from ethylene. It is used in a wide range of applications from heavy-duty storage tanks and pipelines to flexible packaging and films.