Pavlovskij Posad, Russia - BASF Coatings, the first international paint manufacturer to operate in Russia, has held a ceremony to mark the launch of operations at its new plant at Pavlovskij Posad, 60 km east of Moscow, the company said 29 July.
The facility has an annual production capacity of 6 kilotonnes (kt) of basecoat and clearcoat paints with the option of expanding production to 20 kt at any time. The company said that with this site, "one of Europe's most modern facilities," it can now supply the automotive industry in the growth market of Russia locally and quickly. A workforce of 50 will be employed in production, the quality test lab, the warehouse, the workshop and administration.
According to BASF, Russia is already considered to be one of the world's four largest growth markets, and in the coming years will be expanding to bring it behind Germany as the second strongest national economy in Europe.
"These statistics, as well as the fact that all of the key carmakers, including the Asian OEMs, are either represented in Russia or will be establishing their presence there shortly, prompted us to make this investment," said Juan Ximénez-Carrillo Gerber, head of BASF OEM Coatings unit for Europe.
"Our next task involves expanding our existing successful customer relations and winning lots of new customers for our company. Our preliminary work and our achievement to date give me reason to be very optimistic," said Simon Belyakov, head of BASF Coatings in Russia.
BASF also said that current and potential customers can rely on quality as the new site has passed an audit to test conformity with automotive standard TS 16949. Certification to ISO 9001:2000 was also obtained.
The new facility is a "greenfield construction," which is a new facility built on previously unused land.
"The local production capacity now provides a good basis to help shape the dynamic development of the Russian automotive market," concluded Ximénez-Carillo Gerber.
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