BASF planning another production line in Bibbiano
More Styrodur from Italy
BASF is going to build a second production line for its extruded polystyrene rigid foam Styrodur® C at its Bibbiano site near Reggio Emilia, Italy. The new facility will have a capacity of 200,000 cubic meters per year and operations are scheduled to start up in the second half of 2001. Then the Bibbiano site will be able to produce more than 350,000 cubic meters of Styrodur C annually, thus raising BASF's total capacity to 1.3 million cubic meters per year.
The decisive factor in deciding to go ahead with this investment was the favorable scenario in the construction sector in Italy as well as the stricter requirements now being made of thermal insulation for buildings. As a result, there has been a sharp increase in the demand for high-quality and environmentally friendly insulation material, not only in Italy but also in the surrounding markets of the Adriatic.
Styrodur C meets these requirements to a T: it ensures excellent heat insulation properties, low levels of water absorption and high compressive strength. In addition, BASF's own environmentally sound production process - which dispenses with halogenated hydrocarbons that are detrimental to the ozone layer and harmful to the climate - performs the foaming step with carbon dioxide instead; this carbon dioxide is obtained from existing production sequences, and consequently does not contribute to the greenhouse effect. This past June, this development earned BASF an environmental prize awarded by the Federal Association of the German Industry (BDI).
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