BASF announced that it will invest 10 billion euro under its Asia Pacific “grow smartly” strategy to achieve sales of 25 billion euro in the region by 2020.
“In the next decade, Asia Pacific will face huge challenges while remaining the fastest growing market for the chemical industry. With our Asia Pacific strategy, we are positioning BASF as the leading provider of sustainable solutions for the Asia Pacific region,” said Dr Martin Brudermüller, Vice Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors of BASF SE, responsible for Asia Pacific. “Based on our strong global R&D network, we will considerably strengthen our innovation capabilities in Asia Pacific, enabling us to better serve our customers in all industries in the region.”
BASF estimates the cumulative annual growth rate (CAGR) for real chemical production through 2020 for Asia Pacific at 6.2%, well above the world average of 4.0%. According to its strategy, BASF intends to grow profitably at least two percentage points above regional chemical production to achieve sales of 25 billion euro in Asia Pacific by 2020.
To achieve the target, BASF aims to conduct around one quarter of its global research activities from Asia Pacific. By 2020, BASF plans to reach a total of around 3,500 Research & Development (R&D) personnel in the region, up from around 800 in 2012.
One of the major areas they are looking at is battery materials, of which BASF hopes to achieve 350 million euro of sales in Asia Pacific. “Battery materials will be a long term project and it might take longer to develop. But we are full of ideas and I am convinced that this will one day be a big market.” The company is setting up a new R&D Center in Japan this year to focus on battery developments.
Source: http://www.adsalecprj.com/Publicity/MarketNews/lang-eng/article-67005364/Article.aspx
