BASF AG is reorganizing its businesses effective Jan. 1, 2008, into six segments: Chemicals, Plastics, Functional Solutions, Performance Products, Agricultural Solutions and Oil & Gas.
The new Functional Solutions segment will combine the operating divisions Catalysts, Construction Chemicals and Coatings. These divisions supply industry- and customer-specific system solutions and products to the automotive and construction industries.
A new operating division, Care Chemicals, will be established in the Performance Products segment. In the Plastics segment, the Specialty Plastics and Foams business units will be transferred from the Styrenics division to the Performance Polymers division.
“We are focusing our businesses even more closely on our customers,” said Jürgen Hambrecht, chairman of the board of executive directors. “This will enable us to bring our products and system solutions faster to market and will create additional potential for value-adding growth.”
The Performance Products segment will consist of the new Care Chemicals division and the Acrylics & Dispersions (previously Functional Polymers) and Performance Chemicals divisions.
The new Care Chemicals division will combine the activities of the former Fine Chemicals division – for example, products for the pharmaceutical industry and for food and feed, as well as aroma chemicals – with the Performance Chemicals division’s detergents and cleaners business.
The Performance Chemicals division provides solutions that can be used to optimize industrial goods. These solutions include performance chemicals for the oil and refinery industries, for coatings and plastics and for the leather and textile industries.
In the Plastics segment, the Specialty Plastics and Foams business units will be transferred from the Styrenics division to the Performance Polymers division.
