In a few days, the joint venture between BASF, a Fortune 500 company, and MarkorChem Co. This is also the first joint venture between this Fortune 500 company and the Chinese private sector in the chemical industry. It will realize the breakthrough of processing fine chemical industry with natural gas as fuel in Xinjiang, and will also build an environment-friendly demonstration base of the highly refined chemical industry.
Ltd. said: “This unit behind me is the BDO production plant built by the joint venture between Markor Chemical and BASF, the world’s largest chemical producer. This product further extends the industrial chain of our Markor Chemical products. It also provides abundant textile raw materials for our Kullu, and even the whole South Xinjiang region, to realize the combination of production and marketing.”
The full name of BDO is 1,4-butanediol. It is an important fine chemical raw material. Its downstream products are widely used in apparel, cosmetics, aerospace, medicine, and other high value-added fields.
The 100,000 tons per year BDO project of MarkorMio will become the largest BDO industry and new material base in China after it is put into operation.
Hu Bingfei, general manager of BASF Markor Chemical Manufacturing (Xinjiang) Co., Ltd, said: “Fine chemicals have been the overall trend of the global chemical industry, and to stay competitive, we must keep innovating, strong alliances and win-win cooperation. Through this production base, it is possible for our products to develop from low-end industries such as textiles to high-end industries such as pharmaceuticals and high-speed rail.”
Xinjiang’s economic development has entered a new normal. The Party Committee of the autonomous region emphasizes that “accelerating the development of new technologies, new products, and new business models, accelerating the cultivation of new growth drivers and new development momentum, for MarkorChem, innovation is the way to achieve the conversion of old and new dynamics while expanding international cooperation can accelerate the upgrading of industrial structure.”
Mel Martin, former vice president of American International Specialty Chemicals, a senior consultant of Markor Chemical, said, “Markor gives me the impression that it always actively seeks technology partners from abroad. They have imported advanced processes and technologies from the U.S. and Europe. Through the westbound train last summer, the products were successfully sold by rail in order to be exported to Europe, and as a result, they expanded more European customers.”
Openness is the greatest potential of Xinjiang, and the improvement of supply at the industrial level also makes the “Belt and Road” construction process further accelerated. Starting this year, Xinjiang will focus on solving the problem of internal and external linkage of development, developing a higher level of open economy, driving innovation by expanding openness, and promoting reform for development. This also makes more foreign companies more optimistic about Xinjiang.
Dave White, senior vice president and general manager of the global chemicals business of IHS, said, “Markor is located in Xinjiang, benefiting from the ‘Belt and Road’ strategy and the ’13th Five-Year Plan’, and with the geopolitical advantage of using Xinjiang’s natural resources, it will achieve greater success.”
Markor Investment Group Co., Ltd. chairman Feng Dongming said, “Especially in our supply-side reform, that is, the challenge is also an opportunity. We will further upgrade the enterprise in this 13th Five-Year Plan, expand the space of international cooperation, and bring in the European technology as some of our innovative advantages. Really adapt our production capacity according to the supply-side reform.”