BASFs History in Plastics

BASF executive and Basell Chairman Volker Trautz told this author in 2002, that, in his opinion, the boom-and-bust pricing fluctuations marking the polypropylene business, had effectively destroyed all of the investments made by producers of this polymer since its invention, so it was no real surprise that BASF decided to exit polyolefins. This business currently exists as LyondellBasell, an independent, publicly held company. 

BASF was also a pioneer in styrenic polymers and acrylic resins, but went the joint venture route in 2011 with INEOS, in a new company called Styrolution, pooling their respective materials in a much larger-scale operation. 

At the present time, BASF s polymer product line consists of nylons (including 6,66,610, and 6T), polyurethanes, POM, PBT, sulfone polymers, and specialty thermosetting polyesters. The only major thermoplastic that has never been in its portfolio is polycarbonate. 

The company has experimented with forward integration into finished products, such as the production of magnetic recording tapes (which it invented in the early 1930s) and automobile components. However, it found these businesses to be increasingly less profitable than materials and also divested them in the 1990s. 

BASF s entry into acetal copolymer was originally undertaken as a joint venture with Degussa (now known as Evonik), in order to merge the technologies of the two companies to make a commercial product that was technically superior to competing products. Each partner had a manufacturing site and supplied raw materials, BASF at its main plant in Ludwigshafen, and 

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