BASF Starts Steam Cracker at China Site Powered with Renewable Energy
BASF has commissioned the steam cracker at its Verbund site in Zhanjiang, Guangdong Province, China. The facility is the first in the world to operate its main compressors using 100% renewable electricity, the company said.
The steam cracker supplies key basic chemicals, including ethylene and propylene, to multiple on-site plants. It processes long-chain hydrocarbons such as naphtha and butane with steam and has an ethylene capacity of one million metric tons per year, according to the announcement.
Following the start-up of the cracker, BASF has also brought online plants producing ethylene oxide, ethylene glycol and polyethylene. The Zhanjiang site will be BASF’s third largest Verbund facility globally, after Ludwigshafen and Antwerp, and will primarily serve customers in China, the company said.
Stephan Kothrade, BASF's CTO, said in the press statement that the milestone strengthens the company’s value chains in China and supports a wide range of industries.
The latest start-up follows other recent developments at the Zhanjiang site. In October 2025, BASF added an 80,000-metric-ton neopentyl glycol plant, producing a lower-carbon version of the intermediate for powder coatings and lubricants. It also completed the first phase of its acrylics complex in July 2025, bringing glacial acrylic acid and butyl acrylate plants online. The complex, with an annual capacity of approximately 400,000 metric tons of butyl acrylate, is designed to meet growing demand for acrylics in China and across Asia, according to the company.
Germany-based BASF has also launched other expansions within China. In late 2025, the company started up a high-performance dispersant plant in Nanjing using controlled free radical polymerization technology to meet growing demand in industrial coatings and automotive sectors, according to the company.
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