BASF opens new facilities in Taiwan to support electronic materials industry

Highest quality ultra-pure ammonia water and sulfuric acid plants start operation
CATAMOLD® production plant establishes global-scale feedstock manufacturing capability in Taiwan
New application labs allow customers to test material performance under production conditions

Ludwigshafen, Germany/ Shanghai, China – February 5, 2015 –BASF, the world’s leading chemical company, today announced the opening of new facilities in Taiwan for the electronic materials industry, marking a significant step to further expand BASF’s presence in Asia Pacific.

The facilities – for production, research and development, and application testing – are primarily located inside the Kuanyin Industrial Park in Taoyuan and will serve the local and regional markets for semiconductors, displays and metal systems.

“We have been investing in parallel with the growth of the electronic industry in Asia, establishing strong presence where our customers are located,” said Dr. Lothar Laupichler, Senior Vice President Electronics Materials Business Unit at BASF. “Further investment into the Taiwan market reflects our commitment to be closer to customers in order to provide faster and more efficient solutions that satisfy their specific needs, enabling mutual growth and success in the face-paced, competitive global market.”

BASF has started operation of its new ultra-pure electronic-grade sulfuric acid (H2SO4) and ammonia water (NH4OH) production plants, reinforcing its commitment to provide customers with the highest quality process chemicals leveraging latest purification technologies.

The expansion in Taiwan also includes a new CATAMOLD® production facility and a new technical application lab. CATAMOLD® is BASF’s high quality metal feedstock serving the Metal Injection Molding (MIM) industry, and this launch establishes global-scale manufacturing for CATAMOLD® in Taiwan, enabling large volume MIM for electronic and automotive industry applications.

BASF has also opened a new application lab for Advanced Cleaning, Etching Photolithography (ACEP) for improved sample preparation, and expanded its existing Chemical-Mechanical Planarization (CMP) lab with state-of-the-art wafer polishing tools allowing direct transfer of the results to mass production. By this, the labs effectively match customers’ innovation models.

The new site in Kuanyin will also house the advanced Touch Panel Lab, which allows customers to try out material performance together with the help of BASF’s product support team, combining customized solutions with a timely qualification process. The best-in-industry coating formulations from BASF’s Display Resins help facilitate touch enhanced devices and displays with thinner flexible designs, increased responsiveness and improved optical performance (i.e. low reflection).

“Taiwan is one of the largest electronic materials market in the world,” added EngLeong Goh, Managing Director of BASF Taiwan. “These new facilities expand our leading position as a supplier of innovative solutions to the market and enable us to serve our customers better and faster here in Taiwan and across all of Asia Pacific.”

About BASF Greater China
BASF has been a committed partner to Greater China since 1885. With major investments in Nanjing, Shanghai and Chongqing, BASF is one of the largest foreign investors in the Chinese chemical industry, and maintains the BASF Asia Pacific Innovation Campus in Shanghai as a research and development hub for the Asia Pacific region. In Greater China, BASF posted sales of over €5.48 billion in 2013 and employed 7,606 people as of the end of that year. For further information, please visit www.basf.com.

About BASF
At BASF, we create chemistry – and have been doing so for 150 years. Our portfolio ranges from chemicals, plastics, performance products and crop protection products to oil and gas. As the world’s leading chemical company, we combine economic success with environmental protection and social responsibility. Through science and innovation, we enable our customers in nearly every industry to meet the current and future needs of society. Our products and solutions contribute to conserving resources, ensuring nutrition and improving quality of life. We have summed up this contribution in our corporate purpose: We create chemistry for a sustainable future. BASF had sales of about €74 billion in 2013 and over 112,000 employees as of the end of the year. BASF shares are traded on the stock exchanges in Frankfurt (BAS), London (BFA) and Zurich (AN). Further information on BASF is available on the Internet at www.basf.com.

A BASF employee handles a silicon wafer at the expanded facilities for electronic materials located in Kuanyin site. A silicon wafer is a thin slice of semiconductor material used for the fabrication of integrated circuits and solar cells.

A BASF employee at the new CATAMOLD ® lab is inserting a sample tray into a sintering oven. CATAMOLD ® is BASF’s high quality metal feedstock serving the metal injection molding (MIM) industry.