BASF has expanded production capacity for dispersions at its site in Durban, South Africa, strengthening the company’s ability to supply customers with high-quality dispersions used in architectural coatings, construction materials and the paper industry. The significant capacity increase ensures supply reliability, enabling BASF to support customer growth plans more effectively.
In addition to the expanded capacity, BASF has established a modern application laboratory on-site. This new facility enhances technical service capabilities, enabling closer collaboration with customers and stronger support for formulation development.
The Durban site, which supplies customers across East, West and Southern Africa, is one of six dispersion production locations within BASF’s EMEA network. With manufacturing facilities across Europe, the Middle East and Africa, BASF ensures close local proximity to customers, reliable supply and responsiveness to local market needs.
As BASF’s first and only greenfield investment in Africa since 2012, the Dispersions Plant remains the only multinational-owned dispersions plant in South Africa, highlighting the site’s strategic importance to the region’s industrial future.
“Our investment in Durban underscores our strong commitment to the dynamic African region and our local customers. Together with the recent capacity expansion in Dilovasi, Türkiye, and the modernization of the Ludwigshafen plant, we are strengthening our position as a leading supplier of high-quality dispersions across EMEA enhancing our capability to support our customers’ growth and innovations” says Dr. Jörg Niebergall, Senior Vice President, Dispersions Europe.
“This expansion in Durban will increase our supply reliability and ensure excellent product quality,” adds Ruveshen Reddy, responsible for the Durban production site. “To achieve this, we modernized our production facilities and installed a cutting-edge reactor.”
This year, BASF celebrates 60 years of presence in South Africa, demonstrating its long-standing commitment to customers, partners and regional market development. It is also the first non-South African multinational chemical company to attain a Level 1 Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) rating.