Recently, BASF announced the details of its 2024 annual report, highlighting that the Asia-Pacific region still has great potential and is a key market for its investments.
The Asia-Pacific investment share is 52%.
In 2024, BASF continues to expand its investment strategy, focusing on enhancing its position in the three core and promising markets of the Asia-Pacific region, North America, and Europe. The investment amount for 2024 is set to reach 6.506 billion euros, an increase of 10.95% compared to the previous year. In terms of regional distribution, the Asia-Pacific region, especially China, has become a key factor driving the growth of the global chemical market, accounting for approximately 50% of the global chemical market share, and is expected to maintain its strong attractiveness in the future. BASF predicts that by 2035, 80% of the growth in the global chemical industry will be concentrated in this region.
In order to actively participate in this growth trend and meet the increasing demand from various rapidly developing industries in the region, BASF is actively building important facilities such as the Zhanjiang Integrated Base, which is expected to be fully completed by 2025. Starting in 2025, the base will operate entirely on renewable energy power.
In addition, BASF continues to promote the development of other bases in Asia, such as the expansion project in Kuantan, Malaysia, conducted in collaboration with Petroliam Nasional Berhad (PETRONAS Chemicals Group Berhad). In 2024, BASF will invest €3.383 billion in the Asia region, accounting for 52% of the total investment, representing a significant year-on-year increase of 34.17%.
In 2024, BASF's investment in North America amounted to 1.171 billion euros, an increase of 24.82% year-on-year; while its investment in Europe was 1.822 billion euros, a decrease of 20.34%. In North America, BASF's focus is on expanding the production capacity of the isocyanate value chain at its Geismar facility in Louisiana, which is expected to go into production in 2026. At that time, BASF's production capacity for methylene diphenyl diisocyanate (MDI) in North America will be significantly increased from the current annual capacity of 380,000 tons to approximately 600,000 tons. This MDI expansion project is BASF's largest single investment in the North American region.
In addition, BASF has made significant investments in its European bases. In 2024, an integrated facility located in Antwerp, Belgium successfully launched a world-class alkyl ethanolamine production plant, which has increased BASF's global production capacity in this product and its derivatives by nearly 30%.
The project status of BASF starting in 2024 and 2025 is as follows:
In 2024, BASF's largest market by revenue is Europe, followed by North America and Asia. The year-on-year revenue in the three major markets has all seen a decline, while revenue in South America, Africa, and the Middle East has increased by 26.68%. The revenue share from the Asian region has remained basically stable.
China accounts for 86% of the global chemical industry growth.
From a global market perspective, statistics show that industrial production worldwide achieved a growth of 1.5% in 2023, accelerating to 2.1% in 2024. In developed economies, industrial production has nearly stagnated; in contrast, emerging markets have shown strong growth momentum, with a growth rate of 3.9% in 2024, up from 2.9% in 2023. Specifically by region, industrial production in the European Union declined by 1.9%, North America saw a growth of 1.1%, while Asia as a whole grew by 4.2%, with China contributing about three-quarters of the global industrial growth.
After experiencing a stagnation in the previous year, the electronics industry achieved a significant rebound in 2024, with a growth rate of 7.6%. The main driving forces behind this growth are the renewed replacement demand for electronic components (semiconductors), computers, and consumer electronics products.
Despite significant regional differences worldwide, the growth rate of the global chemical industry in 2024 (+3.9%) still significantly outpaces the overall industrial production growth level. According to official data, China's chemical industry achieved a growth rate of approximately 6.8% that year, while the growth rate in other parts of the world was only 1.1%. This means that China's contribution to the global chemical industry growth reached as high as 86%.
Overall, the production of chemical products in the EU achieved a moderate growth of about 1.6% in 2024. Germany, as an important producer of chemical products within the EU, showed a production trend similar to that of the EU as a whole. However, due to a relatively low starting point at the end of 2023, Germany achieved a higher annual growth rate of 3.1% in 2024, compared to a decrease of 12.1% in 2023.
In the United States, due to the overall weakness in industrial demand, the chemical industry has been stagnant for two consecutive years, with a growth rate of 0.0% in 2024, which is basically flat compared to -0.2% in 2023.
The production of chemical products in the Middle East region has increased by a total of 2.5%. Among them, Iran and Saudi Arabia, as the main producing countries in the region, have seen their chemical product production grow slightly above the regional average. However, the production of chemical products in Israel has declined.
BASF has invested over 10 billion euros in the Greater China region to date (with joint investments with partners totaling about 14 billion euros), establishing a competitive local production, sales, technical services, and innovation network. Currently, BASF has 27 major wholly-owned subsidiaries, 11 major joint ventures, and 25 sales offices in the Greater China region.Production to begin by the end of the year! A brief overview of BASF's six major bases in China.
BASF is one of the largest chemical companies in the world, with six main business areas: Chemicals, Materials, Industrial Solutions, Surface Treatment Technologies, Care and Performance, and Agricultural Solutions. Among these, Chemicals, Materials, Industrial Solutions, and Care and Performance are its core businesses, while Surface Treatment Technologies and Agricultural Solutions are independent businesses. In 2024, BASF Group's sales reached 65.26 billion euros, a year-on-year decrease of 5.29%. EBITDA was 6.7 billion euros, a year-on-year decline of 6.95%. Among the six business areas, the Materials business had the highest revenue share in 2024, accounting for 20.7%, while in 2023, Surface Treatment Technologies had the highest revenue share, reaching 23.5%. In 2024, BASF took a series of measures to gradually divest its non-core businesses, shutting down and reducing products to focus on its core business. In 2024, EBITDA for core businesses saw year-on-year growth.
ACMI Chemical New Materials once sold isocyanates better than catalysts at BASF? A detailed analysis has been conducted on the specific composition, revenue changes, and strategic situation of BASF's six major businesses.
BASF's materials business, which accounts for the highest revenue share in 2024, is mainly divided into two parts: functional materials and monomers. Functional materials include engineering plastics, polyurethanes, thermoplastics, special foams, and biodegradable plastics. Monomers include MDI, TDI, ammonia, caprolactam, adipic acid, adhesives, impregnating resins, caustic soda, and nylon 6 and 66. In 2024, the materials business revenue is 13.51 billion euros, a year-on-year decrease of 4.5%, with functional materials revenue at 6.848 billion euros, down 5.5% year-on-year. The EBITDA of the materials business increased by 16.1% year-on-year.
BASF's investment in the chemical business accounts for the highest proportion, with an investment of 3.383 billion euros in 2024, an increase of 25.42% year-on-year. Investment in materials is 976 million euros, a decrease of 7.54% year-on-year.
In 2024, BASF applied for 1,159 new patents globally, with 44.5% focused on sustainability innovation. The company is steadily implementing its market-oriented green transformation strategy, aiming to build a more sustainable product portfolio. With research and development products launched over the past five years, BASF achieved approximately €11 billion in sales in 2024. Given the ongoing growth in customer demand for sustainable products, BASF will focus more on the development of such products in the future. In the next phase of development, BASF plans to further increase the proportion of bio-based and recycled materials used in existing plants, a strategy that will reduce capital expenditures while providing more products with reduced carbon footprints and other sustainability features.
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