The project
The approximate 20,000 sqm campus, located in Mumbai, India, which will incur an investment cost of up to €50 million from BASF Group, is the company’s largest research and development investment in South Asia to date.
Global research operations at BASF innovation campus Asia Pacific will be conducted under the company’s subsidiary, BASF Chemicals India Private Limited, a 100% subsidiary of BASF SE.
Boosting R&D
BASF India’s innovation campus will enable the company to increase its existing R&D activities in the country to include global and regional research on a variety of speciality chemicals for the personal care industry.
“A growing need for energy, food and clean water, limited resources, and a rising world population pose huge challenges. Innovations based on chemistry will enable new solutions,” said Martin Brudermueller, Vice Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors, BASF SE and Chief Technology Officer.
“As a consequence, BASF is expanding its research and development network, especially to emerging markets in Asia, as we want to drive innovation addressing customer and market needs at an early stage,” Brudermueller added.
Strong Indian market
BASF aims to reach the Indian market with its new innovation development: “Mumbai will be another powerful regional innovation hub for BASF, with proximity to the dynamically growing Indian market.”
Facilities on the innovation campus include laboratories for chemical synthesis, application and process development and analytics. It also has the capacity to hold up to 300 scientists from India and around the globe.
“We see the demand for innovative solutions in many industries in India, including automotive as well as food and nutrition. Moreover, India is now home to a wide range of high calibre scientists and excellent domestic research capabilities,” said Sanjeev Gandhi, Member of the Board of Executive Directors, BASF SE, responsible for Asia Pacific.
In recent years, BASF has upped its local presence in India by focusing on manufacturing efforts and responding to challenges relating to the personal care sector within the country, investing about €300 million over the past four years in manufacturing and R&D.
The new innovation campus will add to the company’s existing chemistry capabilities in India, which stood at ten production sites, ten offices and two R&D centres in Mumbai and Mangalore, by the end of 2016.