November 9, 2007 — LUDWIGSHAFEN, GERMANY — After a construction period of around 15 months, the Electronic Materials Center Europe at BASF’s Ludwigshafen site is now complete. Today, Friday, November 9, 2007, BASF presented the new production center to its customers in the semiconductor industry. The production plant for process chemicals for the semiconductor industry is fully integrated in the Verbund and secures supplies to customers throughout Europe. The double-digit million Euro investment has created sixty jobs in Ludwigshafen.
BASF welcomed its most important customers from the European semiconductor industry to the new Electronic Materials Center Europe and informed them about the range of products and services. “With this production center, we are combining BASF’s expertise in electronic chemicals and as ‘The Chemical Company’ to help make our customers in Europe even more successful,” says Dr. Karl-Rudolf Kurtz, group vice president of BASF’s Electronic Materials global business unit.
BASF is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of electronic chemicals for use in the production of semiconductors. The new center includes state-of-the-art purification facilities as well as cleanroom filling stations to ensure the high purity and consistent quality of the products. At the production center, high purity electronic chemicals are filled in containers ranging from 2.5-L bottles to tank containers. BASF’s products for the electronic industry fully satisfy the quality standards of the semiconductor industry.
After completion of the qualification activities at the end of 2007, routine production will commence at the Electronic Materials Center Europe on January 1, 2008. From then onwards, research, product development (including state-of-the-art analytics and a cleanroom laboratory), marketing and sales will be integrated at a single location at BASF’s Ludwigshafen Verbund site.
With its structure and the way it is integrated into BASF’s Verbund, the Electronic Materials Center Europe is unique in Europe. This allows the Electronic Materials business unit to offer its customers a wide range of standard products as well as tailor-made solutions.
The production center also contributes to optimizing the logistics process for electronic chemicals: the Electronic Materials Center Europe has its own storage facilities, ensuring compliance with high standards of supply security.
Ludwigshafen is BASF’s largest production site. The 10 km2 site is also the company’s headquarters and home to its central research platform. Between 2005 and 2009, BASF is investing about EUR6 billion in Ludwigshafen for capital expenditures, modernization, and maintenance of its plants as well as an additional EUR800 million per year in the research and development of modern processes and innovative products.
About BASF
BASF is the world’s leading chemical company: The Chemical Company. Its portfolio ranges from chemicals, plastics, performance products, agricultural products, and fine chemicals to crude oil and natural gas. As a reliable partner to virtually all industries, BASF’s high-value products and intelligent system solutions help its customers to be more successful. BASF develops new technologies and uses them to meet the challenges of the future and open up additional market opportunities. It combines economic success with environmental protection and social responsibility, thus contributing to a better future. BASF has approximately 95,000 employees and posted sales of EUR52.6 billion in 2006. BASF shares are traded on the stock exchanges in Frankfurt, London, and Zurich.
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