BASF SE (Ludwigshafen, Germany; www.basf.com) will grow its global Alkyl Polyglucosides (APG) production capacity with two production expansion projects at sites in Cincinnati, Ohio, and Jinshan, China. With Cincinnati coming online in 2018 and Jinshan in 2019, BASF aims to better serve North American and Asian customers from regional supply points while reducing cross-regional volume flows and shortening lead times.
“APG demand continues to grow thoughout North America and the capacity expansion of the APG plant in Cinicinnati is BASFs commitment to better serve our North American customers,” said Scott Thomson, Senior Vice President, Care Chemicals North America, BASF. “This investment will give us an opportunity to further add value to our customers’ formulations with natural, renewable feedstock-based mild surfactants for various personal and home care applications.”
The investments in the U.S. and China will also ease the capacity concerns at the APG plant in Duesseldorf, Germany, in the future, enabling BASF to continue fulfilling strong European market demand in a timely manner.
APGs are surfactants used for mildness and foam improvement in personal care applications like facial wash, body wash and shampoo. They are also applied in home care for dish washing detergents, laundry and surface cleaning products, as well as for micro-emulsion formulations in agro applications. The home and personal care market is increasing its focus on ultra-mild ingredients and APGs play an important role in those formulations. Additional APG benefits include compatibility with various surfactants and other ingredients due to their non-ionic nature and manufacturing from 100 percent natural and renewable feedstocks.