BASF consolidating chemical catalysts recycling and refining operations to Seneca, South Carolina, production facility
- Seneca site to serve as global recycling hub, increasing efficiency of precious metals recovery and reuse in response to challenging global commodities market
- Incineration and refining of spent chemical catalysts to be shut down at BASF Rome site by year-end
- Cinderford, UK, site to serve as regional transfer center for European chemical catalysts recycling customers
ISELIN, NJ, September 21, 2015 – BASF, a global leader in precious metals services, announced that it will consolidate its spent chemical catalysts refining and recycling operations to the company’s Seneca, South Carolina, operating facility by year-end 2015. As a result, BASF will shut down the incineration and refining of used chemical catalysts at its operating site in Rome, Italy, during the fourth quarter of this year. The Rome site’s operating footprint will be recalibrated to focus on its strongest areas of value creation – process catalysts manufacturing, platinum group metals (PGM) salts and solutions production, and assay laboratory testing and analytics.
As a result of this operational consolidation, there will be a headcount reduction at the Rome site, primarily affecting those positions involved in incineration and refining and related support functions. BASF will work closely with the impacted employees and their appropriate labor representatives to ensure a respectful and orderly transition process.
“This operational consolidation will allow BASF to leverage our existing processing capacity and recycling expertise in Seneca, optimizing our overall production efficiencies for the refining and recycling of recovered platinum group metals in the face of an increasingly challenging global commodities market,” said Deon Carter, Senior Vice President, Precious Metals Services with BASF. “The Seneca site already serves as BASF’s global PGM recycling hub, where precious metals recovered from spent chemical catalysts and autocatalysts are refined for use in a new generation of catalysts that support clean air and improved production efficiency for a broad range of chemical and industrial applications.”
To support this operational consolidation, BASF’s site in Cinderford, UK, will now serve as a regional transfer center for all European spent chemical catalyst recycling customers, providing centralized collection, documentation and transfer services to ensure a seamless transition. The Cinderford site will also continue to serve as BASF’s European recycling hub for scrapped autocatalysts, where PGMs are recovered and shipped to Seneca for further refining and use in next-generation emissions catalysts.
“While spent chemical catalyst incineration and refining operations will be discontinued at the Rome site, the facility will continue to manufacture chemical catalysts and PGM salts and solutions while maintaining our world-class assay testing and analytics laboratory, which was expanded at the site in early 2015,” added Rome Site Director Roberto Spaggiari.
In addition, existing customer-facing activities at the Rome site – including customer service and metals settlement – will remain in place. As such, the Rome site will continue to serve as a vital BASF operating facility and the primary interface for BASF Chemical Catalysts recycling customers in Europe.
About BASF’s Catalysts Division
BASF’s Catalysts division is the world’s leading supplier of environmental and process catalysts. The group offers exceptional expertise in the development of technologies that protect the air we breathe, produce the fuels that power our world and ensure efficient production of a wide variety of chemicals, plastics and other products, including advanced battery materials. By leveraging our industry-leading R&D platforms, passion for innovation and deep knowledge of precious and base metals, BASF’s Catalysts division develops unique, proprietary solutions that drive customer success. Further information on BASF’s Catalysts division is available on the Internet at www.catalysts.basf.com.
About BASF
At BASF, we create chemistry – and have been doing so for 150 years. Our portfolio ranges from chemicals, plastics, performance products and crop protection products to oil and gas. As the world’s leading chemical company, we combine economic success with environmental protection and social responsibility. Through science and innovation, we enable our customers in nearly every industry to meet the current and future needs of society. Our products and solutions contribute to conserving resources, ensuring nutrition and improving quality of life. We have summed up this contribution in our corporate purpose: We create chemistry for a sustainable future. BASF had sales of over €74 billion in 2014 and around 113,000 employees as of the end of the year. Further information on BASF is available on the Internet at www.basf.com.