Since the start of large-scale production of polystyrene in 1930, and polyamide in 1940, BASF has set the pace in all of the key stages of plastics development.

With its comprehensive product line, BASF is now one of the largest plastics producers worldwide and has an extensive range of styrene-based products, polyurethanes, and engineering plastics. New and highly efficient technologies and production processes combine with optimized production systems within a unique logistics structure, making BASF products leaders in terms of both cost and technology in many sectors.

BASF’s Verbund system of integration involves a complex network optimizing the use of technical and economic resources. In production, for example, the Verbund system uses the products and by-products from one plant as starting materials for the next. The energy Verbund system takes waste heat and utilizes this for process heating. These are synergies which reduce costs and keep prices competitive. And the know-how Verbund capitalizes on the power generated by integrating the knowledge and experience of more than 100 000 employees worldwide.

Contacts with customers in more than 170 countries, production sites in 38 countries: BASF is present in all of the important economic centers of the world.

Backward integration, production facilities with Verbund integration, and world-scale plants form the basis for production structures firmly oriented toward the future. The major European Verbund sites at Ludwigshafen/Germany, Antwerp/Belgium and Tarragona/Spain and Geismar and Freeport in the US have long been making a major contribution to continuous development of the value-added chain within plastics production.