A cargo ship docks at Zhanjiang Port in Guangdong province. The port is the only one with 400,000-DWT wharfs in South China. [Photo provided by Guo Longbi/For China Daily]

Industrial parks and improving infrastructure attracting wide range of businesses

German chemical giant BASF announced on Oct 11 that it will invest in a new world-class Neopentyl Glycol plant at its new Verbund site in the coastal city of Zhanjiang in the western part of Guangdong province.

With an annual production capacity of 80,000 metric tons, the new NPG plant is expected to come on stream in the last quarter of 2025, to boost BASF's global NPG capacity to 335,000 metric tons annually from 255,000 tons at present.

The announcement came shortly after its first plant at the Verbund site was put into operation in early September, which marked a milestone in the comprehensive construction of the Zhanjiang project.

The smart Verbund site, with a total investment of 10 billion euros ($9.55 billion), will form a solid foundation for a world-class industrial cluster in Zhanjiang, local officials said.

The site is the first large petrochemical project solely owned by a foreign investor in China.

On Sept 15, less than 10 days after the plant went into operation, 11 petrochemical companies signed cooperation agreements with the Zhanjiang Economic and Technological Development Zone and BASF, with a combined investment hitting about 7 billion yuan.

They will strengthen cooperation in such sectors as fine chemical industry, public and supporting facilities, and logistics services. The estimated industrial output value will exceed 11 billion yuan in total.

Big projects such as BASF's Verbund site in Zhanjiang are paving way for the city to speed up its high-quality economic development, officials said.

In recent years, Zhanjiang has made great efforts to develop port industries, coastal tourism and agriculture with local characteristics, in a bid to form a high-level modern industrial system.

It now has four major industrial projects each with an investment of more than $10 billion and several Fortune Global 500 companies including Air Liquide and Veolia.