BASF completely revamps production unit at Ludwigshafen site and strengthens production of acid chlorides and chloroformates

■ Increased capacity through modernization

■ decrease product carbon footprint by an average of 19% with renewable electricity 1

BASF officially opened the German Ludwigshafen integrated base of modern acid chloride and chloroformate production plant. This new production facility represents a significant milestone to BASF’s Intermediates division, aimed at enhancing both capacity and sustainability while ensuring a prolonged, reliable supply to customers worldwide.

This modernization project involves a complete upgrade of the acyl chloride and chloroformate production facilities, growing the site’s capacity to these items by approximately 30%. BASF is one of the world’s leading producers of acyl chlorides and chloroformates, with production facilities located in Ludwigshafen, Germany, and Yeosu, South Korea.

Mary Kurian, member of the Executive Board of BASF Group, said: "The opening of this modern production facility demonstrates BASF's commitment to investing in competitive and sustainable production assets in the integrated Ludwigshafen site and in Europe. Through higher production capacity, reliable supply and significantly reduced product carbon footprint, we create value to our customers and help them convert environmentally friendly."

The launch also marks a successful combination of operational excellence and sustainability. Since 2025, BASF has produced a portfolio of approximately 25 acid chlorides and chloroformates from the entire Ludwigshafen site, including the production of all upstream raw materials, using renewable electricity certificates. This shift reduces the product carbon footprint of the portfolio by an average of 19%, helping customers advance the Scope 3 emit reduction process without changing product specifications, certification and ordering processes.

Meeting global customer needs

Acid chlorides and chloroformates are crucial building blocks in many value chains and are applied in pharmaceuticals, crop protection items, organic peroxides, coatings, plastics and rubber compounds. The expansion of production capacity is expected to help BASF meet the growing demand in the global market and support the stable supply of these crucial intermediate items.

"This investment strengthens our position as one of the world's leading suppliers of acyl chlorides and chloroformates and our vision to be the partner of choice to sustainable intermediates," said Ketan Joshi, President of BASF's Intermediates Business Unit. "Modern units further enhance our ability to provide reliable supply and consistent condition to our global customers to meet their demand to these critical intermediates."

As part of BASF's sustainability strategy, the company continues to expand the consumption of renewable power in its global intermediates business and to promote other greater sustainable practices. The commissioning of this modern device marks another solid measure to BASF to achieve the goal of "becoming the preferred chemical company to help customers environmentally friendly transformation.

1 emit reduction covers scope 1, scope 2 and scope 3.1 releases, based on scenarios where renewable power certificates are not applied, and calculated based on 2025 production. The expected 2026 emit reductions are assumed to be the same as 2025 production. BASF's calculation of the carbon footprint of its items follows the standards and guidelines of ISO 14067:2018. In the methodology review, the SCOTT method developed and applied by BASF Europe Company of TüV Rhine Certification in Germany to calculate the carbon footprint of items has scientific basis, meets the standards of ISO 14067:2018 and the "Carbon Footprint Guide to Chemical sector items" version 3.0 (December 2024) issued by the Joint Sustainable research (TfS) organization, and reflects the cutting-edge technical level (certificate number: 0000080389, see BASF SE-Certipedia to details).