German chemical giant BASF is to build a new manufacturing facility at its Bangpoo site in Thailand to strengthen its local production capability for water-borne and solvent-borne coatings.

The new facility will complement its Coatings Technical Competence Centre, which opened last September and houses a laboratory for product development, performance testing and colour design, as well as a small-batch production unit.

The expansion will help BASF to better serve the expanding automotive industry in the ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations) region.

BASF vice-president Peter Fischer said, “Recognising the potential in ASEAN, we have been active in the automotive-coatings industry there for more than 10 years, with a particularly strong foothold in Thailand. This has made us Thailand’s number-one supplier of motorcycle coatings. We are now stepping up our investment to serve car customers as well with our high-quality coatings and our integrated process technology. Our growth and investment plans go hand in hand with our customers’ expansion plans.”

Gecha Ritvirulh, director (coatings solutions ASEAN), said: “With increasing numbers of car and motorcycle OEMs engaging in production and marketing activities in ASEAN, it’s our top priority to provide a high degree of technical service and to increase our local supply capability, in order to satisfy their needs for innovative coatings solutions and products. We will continue to strengthen our presence in ASEAN; we plan to double the number of technical and customer service experts in the next few years.”