Ludwigshafen, Germany - In a move which will secure raw material supply for speciality amines in North America, BASF is to build a new plant to make methylamines at its integrated site in Geismar, Louisiana -- scheduled to start up in 2011.
The methylamines will serve as raw materials for some 20 different speciality amines produced by BASF at existing facilities in Geismar, the group said in an 18 May announcement.
BASF currently has three methylamine facilities -- in Ludwigshafen, Germany, Nanjing, China, and Camaçari, Brazil -- with a total annual capacity of 169 kilotonnes.
The new methylamines plant in Geismar will create 11 new jobs at BASF and about 250 people will work on the plant in the construction phase.
"This plant will strengthen our leading position as a global supplier of standard and specialty amines," as well as "paving the way to continued growth for our business with methylamine derivatives," said Dr Beate Ehle, president of BASF's Intermediates division, in the BASF statement.
BASF's customers use these derivatives as key starting materials to make water-treatment, gas-treatment and cleaning agents, detergents, pharmaceuticals and crop protectants, Ehle added.
Methylamines are also used as building blocks to synthesise solvents such as dimethylformamide (DMF) and N-methylpyrrolidone (NMP), used in the production of synthetic leather, textile coatings and fibres.
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