BASF opens customer center for automotive technology in Shanghai, China

BASF today (October 11) inaugurated a customer center for automotive technology in Shanghai, China, at which the company presents innovations for the automotive Industry, at this new center,
BASF chemists and engineers will be optimizing and developing new applications in close cooperation with customers as well as offering training programs in process technology.

By opening the center in close proximity to its Pudong BASF production site, BASF is underlining the importance of the Asian and especially the Chinese automotive market for its chemicals
business. By the year 2010, BASF expects an annual rate of increase of ten percent in automotive production in China alone. Dr. Wolfgang Hapke, President BASF Market & Business Development
Asia Pacific, explains the importance of the automotive industry for BASF: “Last year, BASF notched up worldwide sales of around ?5.3 billion with products for the automotive industry including
the catalyst business. This makes BASF the world’s largest automotive industry supplier among the chemical companies. Asia and especially China, which is now the world’s third largest
automotive market, are important growth drivers for us in this sector.”

Today there is hardly any brand of automobile that does not contain BASF products. Whether coatings, plastics or fuel additives – every car contains chemical components amounting to around
?800. And chemical products are becoming increasingly important in automotive construction: for example, while plastics now account for an average 14 percent of the materials in a middle class
automobile, this proportion will grow to 18 percent by 2008 and 20 percent by 2010. The resulting weight savings will be reflected in reduced fuel consumption and lower CO2 emissions.

Environmentally friendly technologies are now also in demand in the Asian automotive industry. For example, exhaust gas specialists from BASF Catalysts have developed diesel oxidation catalysts
and catalytic carbon particulate filters, which in Hong Kong alone have been fitted to more than 35,000 diesel vehicles from vans to trucks, including 2,500 buses of the local public transit
system. BASF is now equipping buses of Beijing Public Transport Holding Ltd. with SCR catalysts (selective catalytic reduction) to ensure compliance with the Euro Norm IV standard recently
introduced there.

BASF has now become a leading system partner for automotive manufacturers. With ever shorter development times and a growing number of model variants on fewer platforms, BASF is cooperating
with automotive manufacturers and suppliers in reducing development and production times at the earliest possible stage, thereby saving costs, improving the quality of the products and
generating product innovations.