BASF reorganizes its Petrochemicals Division

Tuesday, Jun 30, 2009

BASF reorganizes its Petrochemicals division effective July 1, 2009. The future organization consists of four (formerly six) business units. The optimized organizational structures will lead to higher efficiency and effectiveness and will open up potentials to even better serve customers´ needs. Customers will benefit from a reduced number of interfaces and a broader portfolio of the respective business units. The new clustering of businesses also comes along with new business opportunities as well as synergy effects out of the BASF Verbund.

“We aim to focus even more closely on our customers within their respective regional markets and enhance efficiency and flexibility at the same time”, said Dr. Albert Heuser, President Petrochemicals division. “We want to strengthen the responsibility of the regions considerably this is why we chose to reorganize our division in four regional business units.” The new organizational setup is based on a thorough analysis of the market and economic situation, which has fundamentally changed over the last years. Exemplary for this change are the important BASF investments in Nanjing (China) and Port Arthur (USA).

The details of the reorganization are as follows:

• The new business unit Basic Petrochemicals Europe, headed by Dr. Uwe Kirchgäßner, comprises the businesses for cracker products and industrial gases as well as alkylene oxides and glycols in Europe. This reflects a focus on the ethylene based value chain.
• The businesses for acrylics as well as alcohols, solvents & plasticizers in Europe will be consolidated in the new business unit Industrial Petrochemicals Europe, headed by Dr. Detlef Kratz. This reflects a focus on the propylene and raffinate based value chain.
• All businesses of the Petrochemicals division in North America will be consolidated in the business unit Petrochemicals North America, headed by Peter Cella.
• All businesses of the Petrochemicals division in Asia Pacific will be consolidated in the business unit Petrochemicals Asia Pacific headed by Sanjeev Gandhi.

About the Petrochemicals division

The Petrochemicals division is the “Heart of the Verbund” and supplies products to internal as well as external customers, e.g. to the following industries: chemical manufacturing, construction, food and beverage or agriculture. The Petrochemicals division produces and markets a broad portfolio of Cracker Products, Industrial Gases, Acrylics, Alkylene Oxides, Glycols, Alcohols, Solvents and Plasticizers. Petrochemicals are used in PET-bottles, antifreezes, coatings, superabsorbent polymers, carbonated beverages, blood bags or cling films. The employees work at production sites in Europe, Asia, North and South America.  

About BASF

BASF is the world’s leading chemical company: The Chemical Company. Its portfolio ranges from chemicals, plastics and performance products to agricultural products, fine chemicals as well as oil and gas. As a reliable partner BASF helps its customers in virtually all industries to be more successful. With its high-value products and intelligent solutions, BASF plays an important role in finding answers to global challenges such as climate protection, energy efficiency, nutrition and mobility. BASF posted sales of more than €62 billion in 2008 and had approximately 97,000 employees as of the end of the year. BASF shares are traded on the stock exchanges in Frankfurt (BAS), London (BFA) and Zurich (AN).

Source: BASF