BASF to set up plastic plant in Thane

Mumbai: Chemical company BASF is setting up a new engineering plastics compounding plant at its existing site in Thane.

The plant, with an initial capacity of 9,000 tonnes a year, is primarily meant for plastic components for automobiles.

The plant, which will also cater to the needs of electrical as well as electronic industries, will come on stream by the second half of this year, said Mr Herman Althoff, BASF’s Group Vice-President (Asia Pacific).

“The increased use of plastic for weight reduction is a global trend in the automotive world. The price escalation of vehicles due to rising metal cost has prompted automobile manufacturers to initiate replacement of metal components with plastic. There is a new-found demand for engineering plastic,” said Dr Wolfgang Hapke, President (Asia Pacific), BASF.

About 11 per cent of the income of BASF India, which has an annual turnover of more than Rs 1,000 crore, comes from automotive components, said Mr Prasad Chandran, Chairman, BASF India Ltd.

The company currently supplies to automobile companies, including Maruti Suzuki, Tata Motors and Mahindra & Mahindra, apart from international carmakers operating in India.

“There is a lot of room for replacing metal with plastics in automotives. A lot of components are still made of steel. In Europe, roughly 20 per cent of the weight of a car is engineering plastic, while in India it is just 10 per cent,” said Dr Hapke.

He also said that the BASF’s catalyst plant in Chennai will triple its capacity by 2009.