K 2007 Trade press conference
July 3 and 4, 2007 in Frankenthal, Germany
Cleaning up the house
BASF’s polyamide product range restructured
Presentation by Dr. Bernhard Rosenau,
Head of Marketing Polyamide,
BASF Aktiengesellschaft, Ludwigshafen, Germany
Even 70 years after their invention, polyamides (PA) can still yield product novelties like automotive oil pans, lower bumper stiffeners or sophisticated electronic components. Over the course of the past decades, however, the highly regarded high-performance types have been joined by a few polyamide grades that – fierce competition being the background – fulfill important functions in simpler applications such as the production of furniture parts or clips. The assortment has become broader but also more confusing. For this reason, BASF has started to restructure its polyamide product line, which had become quite extensive in the meantime, in order to make it simpler for customers to keep track of the variety of types offered.
Three precisely defined brands
The new arrangement breaks down the product range into three distinct categories: the strategic core brand for technically demanding applications is and will continue to be the brand Ultramid® worldwide. In the future, distinct specialties – such as small volumes that are needed in special colors or with other modifications – will be bundled under the name Miramid®. High flexibility in terms of delivery times and marketing conditions will be the strong points of the Miramid brand. Polyamides for generic applications that do not require specific approvals – industrial grades with a smaller range of services – are now combined under the umbrella of the Capron® brand name.
Rounding off the product line: polyamide acquisitions
In recent years, BASF, as the leading supplier in the European polyamide market, has seen its sales grow strongly, even more rapidly than the overall market, for which attractive growth rates of 5% annually are projected for the near future. The reason behind the substantial expansion of the market share is, on the one hand, the increasing significance and the organic growth of the Ultramid® brand in sophisticated applications and, on the other hand, a number of acquisitions which have enabled the company to round off its product line. For instance, Capron® polyamides (formerly Honeywell) have augmented BASF’s range since 2003. The Miramid® assortment was added in November 2005 through the acquisition of Leuna Miramid GmbH (today BASF Leuna GmbH). The various products, businesses and customers, some of which overlapped, have now been rearranged.
Ultramid, Miramid, Capron
Ultramid®, as the global core brand for technically sophisticated, performance-oriented and service-oriented applications as well as customer-specific logistic solutions, is on one side. Capron®, as a particularly economical material for large-volume standard applications that do not involve narrow specifications, delimits BASF’s PA assortment on the other side. The Capron® line-up is greatly influenced by the new, more sharply delineated definition of BASF’s polyamide product range. It will continue to exist to a markedly reduced extent. A large portion of the types that used to be combined here will now be moved over to the Ultramid or Miramid® lines.
Miramid and Leuna: specialties in focus
The Miramid® product line is a problem solver for exceptional requirements and special processing methods. BASF Leuna GmbH benefits directly from this. The major contribution that the 140 employees of this company have made to BASF is their considerable expertise in the development of customer-specific formulations of small-volume PA specialties. This includes fast and flexible coloring according to customer specifications and the availability of a comprehensive assortment of special types that are suitable, for example, for rotomolding or galvanization. Presently, the new BASF subsidiary has over 600 active color formulations, approximately 250 of which are automotive colors of the OEMs with a focus on interior applications. Every year, the company adds about 100 new color developments and product modifications.
The core competences of BASF Leuna have been cultivated in the past years and are now being expanded. This experienced and versatile polyamide converter will continue to sell its new and old Miramid® types directly out of Leuna; all shipments are also controlled from this site. However, by joining BASF’s know-how pool, thereby acquiring easier access to high-quality polymers and benefiting from backwards integration into BASF’s integrated network (Verbund), employees of this site in the eastern part of Germany can now operate on a broader basis and with greater support. Examples of services offered in new application fields include flexible and fast delivery, also for small to medium-sized orders. Customers operating throughout Europe, for example, can benefit from this simplified access to individually colored BASF polyamides. Whenever they wish they can take advantage of offering country-specific colorations without modifying the product specifications, for instance, for safety switches, whose coloration is not uniformly regulated throughout the European Union.
With its restructuring of the polyamide range, BASF is also strengthening its position in a sector that, up to now, had been dominated by smaller suppliers. Users who so far had to look around at multiple compounders for their specific projects can now gain access to high-performance BASF polymers and to the appertaining knowledge all from the same source. The rearrangement, however, will not change anything in the property profile of BASF polyamides. All product variants made by BASF will continue to be available with their familiar specifications while smaller volumes of the Ultramid® types will still be marketed by BASF’s regional partners.
Photo: BASF, 2007
The latest brand in BASF’s polyamide product line is Miramid®. From now on, this is the name under which BASF will be marketing all of the polyamides that customers may want to purchase in special colors and thus usually in small amounts. BASF Leuna GmbH, which joined the BASF Group at the end of 2005, offers a very flexible fast coloring and delivery service. At present, BASF Leuna GmbH has over 600 color formulations and it continues to develop new formulations according to customer’s wishes. Typical applications of such special colorations are, for instance, for hand-held power tools.