BASF announced the opening of a new construction technology centre in Mumbai. The centre will support the development and testing of new applications for concrete admixtures, cement additives, waterproofing, flooring systems, precision grouts, concrete repair and protection products, amongst others.
Present in the occasion, Dr. Thomas Kloster, Vice President, BASF Construction Chemicals Asia Pacific comments, “Investment in the Mumbai technical centre is part of our global strategy to focus on innovation and sustainability. The new centre will support joint development with customers for new product applications and formulations, providing an excellent venue for enterprises in the sub-region to embrace world-class, cutting-edge technologies in partnership with BASF’s technical professionals.” Prasad Chandran, Chairman, BASF Companies in India & Head South Asia said, “The need for improvement in infrastructure, urbanisation and industrialisation will drive future growth of the construction industry in India. As a result our construction chemicals business is poised for further growth. The newly inaugurated construction technology centre will serve the increasing needs of development and technical services for the South Asia region by ensuring better collaboration with customers.”
 Located in close proximity to the manufacturing facility in Navi Mumbai, the newly constructed technical centre is a state-of-the-art laboratory facility occupying an area of 5000 square feet. The facility houses several pieces of equipment that will help increase BASF’s capabilities to both develop and test new products. These include a concrete rheometer, high capacity compression testing machine, equipment to measure durability properties of concrete and a micro calorimeter to develop new cement additives.
BASF’s Construction Chemicals division now operates 5 technical centres in the Asia Pacific region, Japan, Australia, Singapore, China and India. In India, the division operates production sites in Navi Mumbai, Mangalore, Nalagarh, Kolkata and Bangalore