BASF is undertaking a comprehensive overhaul of its production facilities at the Ludwigshafen site, strengthening the manufacture of acyl chlorides and chloroformates.

■ Enhancing Production Capacity Through Modernization

■ Using renewable electricity reduces the average product carbon footprint by 19%¹

BASF has officially commissioned a state-of-the-art acyl chloride and chloroformate production facility at its integrated site in Ludwigshafen, Germany. 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, a member of the Executive Board of BASF SE, stated: “The commissioning of this state-of-the-art production facility underscores BASF’s commitment to investing in competitive, sustainable manufacturing assets at its integrated site in Ludwigshafen and across Europe. By growing capacity, ensuring reliable supply, and significantly reducing the carbon footprint of our items, we create value to our customers and support their environmentally friendly transformation.”

This commissioning also marks the successful integration of operational excellence and sustainable research. Since 2025, BASF has been using renewable electricity certificates to create approximately 25 acyl chloride and chloroformate product lines at its Ludwigshafen site, covering the production of all upstream raw materials. This transformation has reduced the average carbon footprint of the product portfolio by 19%, enabling customers to advance their Scope 3 releases reduction efforts without altering product specifications, certification standards, or ordering processes.

Satisfy global customer needs

Acyl chlorides and chloroformate esters serve as key structural building blocks across numerous value chains, with extensive applications 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 global markets and ensure a stable supply of these critical intermediate items.

Ketan Joshi, President of BASF’s Intermediates Business Unit, stated: “This investment strengthens our position as one of the world’s leading suppliers of acyl chlorides and chloroformates, while also advancing our vision of becoming the preferred partner to sustainable intermediates. The modernized plant further enhances our ability to provide global customers with a reliable supply and consistent condition, meeting their demand to these critical intermediates.”

As part of BASF’s sustainability strategy, the company is continuously expanding the consumption of renewable electricity across its global intermediates business and implementing other greater sustainable practices. The commissioning of this state-of-the-art facility marks another solid measure forward to BASF in achieving its goal of becoming the chemical company of choice to enabling customers’ environmentally friendly transformation.

1 Scope 1, Scope 2, and Scope 3 releases are included in the reduction calculations, based on a scenario that does not utilize renewable electricity certificates and are projected using 2025 production levels. The projected 2026 releases reduction is based on the assumption that 2025 production levels will remain unchanged. BASF’s product carbon footprint calculations comply with the standards and guidelines of ISO 14067:2018. In the methodological review, BASF Europe’s SCOTT methodology—developed and applied to calculate product carbon footprints—is responsibly sound, compliant with ISO 14067:2018 and Version 3.0 of the “Chemical sector Product Carbon Footprint Guidance” published by the Together to Sustainability (TfS) initiative (December 2024), and reflects state-of-the-art technical practice (Certificate No.: 0000080389; see BASF SE-Certipedia to details).