 |
Our Verbund is one of BASF's greatest assets when it comes to using resources efficiently. Our global Verbund is the foundation for BASF's competitiveness in all regions.
Worldwide, BASF operates six Verbund sites and close to 100 large and a multitude of smaller production sites worldwide. In our Verbund, we link production plants intelligently to save resources and energy. The largest Verbund site in BASF Group is located in Ludwigshafen, Germany. This was where the Verbund concept was developed and optimized before it was applied to other sites around the world.
In its home market of Europe, BASF additionally operates a Verbund site in Antwerp, Belgium. The cornerstones of BASF's presence in the important North American chemical markets are the two sites in Geismar, Louisiana, and Freeport, Texas, which also operate according to the Verbund principle. These sites are further strengthened thanks to the steam cracker in Port Arthur, Texas. In the fast growingAsia Pacific market, BASF operates two Verbund sites in Kuantan, Malaysia, and Nanjing, China.
Our 14 operating divisions deliver products and intelligent solutions to a variety of business partners in over 200 countries. In 2007, we generated 56 percent of our sales with customers in Europe. North America accounted for 21 percent of sales; Asia Pacific for 16 percent; and South America, Africa, Middle East for 7 percent.
|
 |
| Please click on the image to see a larger view of this picture. |
|
 |
At our Verbund sites, production plants, energy and waste flows, logistics, and site infrastructure are all integrated, so that chemical processes consume less energy, produce higher product yields and conserve resources.
Thanks to its Verbund structure, BASF saves around €500 million each year at its Ludwigshafen site alone. By linking plants in a Production Verbund, we can create efficient value-adding chains starting with basic chemicals and extending to higher value products like coatings and crop protection products. In addition, by-products from one plant can be used as raw materials elsewhere. Production plants are connected by an intricate network of pipes that provides an environmentally friendly method of transporting raw materials and energy quickly and safely.
|
The Verbund principle also applies to energy. In the Energy Verbund, the excess heat given off in chemical reactions is immediately converted into steam and is fed into the steam network so that it can be made available to other plants.
The Verbund principle also extends to research and knowledge management and to cooperation between BASF employees, as it also does to cooperation with customers and dialogue with neighbors at our sites.
We strengthened our Know-how and Research Verbund last year through acquisitions and the development of additional research capacities in our four technology platforms.
|
|
|
|
|
|
