OREANDA-NEWS. BASF created the new Performance Materials Division in January of 2013. In keeping with differentiation on the basis of business model and customer requirements, units with a customer and industry sector focus are now separated more clearly from units that focus on chemistry and production. The new Division Performance Materials combines as never before in one entity materials know-how and the innovative, customized plastics from BASF.

The product groups encompass in the polyurethanes field the polyurethane systems, the thermoplastic polyurethanes and the Cellasto® damper elements; the thermosetting epoxy resins, the engineering plastics, functional foams such as Basotect® or Neopolen®, the biopolymers, and the styrene-based foam products such as Neopor® or Styrodur®. As a result, the Operating Division is active in a huge number of industry sectors, in the established ones such as automotive, construction, electrical and electronics, in the shoe and refrigerator sectors and even the young, up and coming alternative energy sector. In the first quarter of 2013, sales in the new Performance Materials Division totaled 1.6 billion euros.

The goal is to continue to grow while remaining profitable, to serve the established sales markets even better, to participate in attractive growth markets and to develop new business activities. Many customer sectors rely increasingly on wide-ranging materials expertise for their innovations, expertise that they themselves often lack. With their variety of products and their understanding of application-oriented system solutions, BASF material experts can make a significant contribution here. Through networking, the new division will exploit this multi-faceted know-how internally in a manner that fosters continuous innovation and ensures even greater success among customers. By adopting this comprehensive approach and eliminating interfaces, it is possible to offer unique solutions and services while simultaneously increasing the value added for BASF. Performance Materials is the BASF platform for materials.

The Performance lies, for example, in the comprehensive expertise for insulation materials for the construction sector. EPS insulation foams like Neopor and Styrodur are now merged with numerous polyurethane (PU) insulation foams from the Elastopor®, Elastopir® and Elastospray® product range. From this huge portfolio, BASF construction experts can recommend the best individual solution. Among the news in the Division is a high performance PU foam with extremely high insulation capacity, that comes directly from product research. It comes as a kind of solid aerogel and will be launched in the market in two to three years.