September 18, 2006

BASF to invest US$0.5 billion in China by 2009

German chemical group BASF announced plans to invest US$1 billion in the Asia-Pacific region over the next three years, with at least half the amount going to China, the company's regional chief said.

The company has already invested more than US$2 billiion in China in recent years, mostly in the first-phase development of a 50-50 joint venture petrochemical complex with Sinopec, the South China Morning Post reported executive director Martin Brudermuller as saying.

Bredermuller further added that the major point of the company's investment in the Asia-Pacific would be in China.

BASF and Sinopec said in July they would each put another US$250 million into a  second-phase development plastics plant in the eastern Chinese city of Nanjing.