BASF, German Chemical Giant, Seeks to Dominate in Asia-Pacific by 2020, Announces Ambitious Sales Goal, Research Expansion In Region

The world’s largest chemical company, Germany’s BASF SE (ETR:BAS), aims to have €25 billion ($32.7 billion) in Asia-Pacific sales by 2020.

The company aims to invest €10 billion in the Asia-Pacific region, create around 9,000 jobs and place a full quarter of its research and development activity there, all by 2020.

The research conducted in Asia will help develop innovations addressing Asia’s “challenges of resource efficiency, food and nutrition, and quality of life,” BASF said Tuesday in a news release.

“In the next decade, Asia Pacific will face huge challenges while remaining the fastest-growing market for the chemical industry,” said Martin Brudermüller, a BASF executive in charge of the Asia-Pacific region.

The corporation estimated that real chemical production in the Asia-Pacific region will grow by about 6.2 percent annually, at a significantly higher clip than the global 4 percent average.

Products BASF will research in Asia include sustainable packaging, renewable energy and advanced pharmaceutical production. To do this, it will deploy approximately 3,500 researchers in Asia by 2020, up from 800 in 2012.

BASF currently operates more than 100 production facilities in Asia. Even with its expansion, the firm hopes to save €1 billion annually by 2020 with new efficiency measures. BASF had sales of €72.1 billion in 2012 and employed more than 110,000 people worldwide, as of late 2012.