BASF Zhanjiang Completes Key Milestone as China's Butyl Acrylate Market Faces Mounting Oversupply

On July 21, 2025, BASF announced the successful mechanical completion of the first units in the acrylic acid and esters zone at its Zhanjiang Verbund site. This marks a significant milestone, signaling the project's transition into the commissioning and start-up phase. The news has drawn widespread attention within the chemical industry-not only because of BASF's global leadership in chemicals, but also due to the potential impact this project could have on the acrylic acid market in China and across Asia.

The Zhanjiang facility's butyl acrylate unit is designed with an impressive annual production capacity of 400,000 tons. Since construction began in 2023, the project has progressed steadily and is expected to come online as scheduled in 2025. Earlier this year, Wanhua's 400,000-ton/year facility in Penglai also began operations, pushing China's total butyl acrylate capacity to 3.78 million tons. BASF's new addition is expected to intensify competition in an already crowded market.

Acrylic acid remains one of BASF's core business pillars. With the completion of this state-of-the-art integrated production complex, BASF will further expand its capacity across the full acrylic acid value chain. These world-scale production units are designed to supply the Chinese and broader Asian markets with high-quality, competitive products and faster delivery cycles, helping meet growing regional demand.

From an industrial chain perspective, acrylic acid is derived from propylene and is widely used in the production of acrylate esters, superabsorbent polymers (SAP), acrylic rubber, and high-performance materials. Acrylate esters, in particular, are essential for producing adhesives, water-based coatings, and polymer emulsions, which serve end markets such as paints, textiles, and construction. Among these esters, butyl acrylate alone accounts for roughly 80% of total acrylate capacity.

However, market data reveals a looming supply-demand imbalance. Although production capacity continues to expand in 2025, prices have fallen to five-year lows. The average market price of butyl acrylate in the first half of 2025 was RMB 8,711 per ton, down 5.99% year-on-year, with price fluctuations ranging from RMB 8,150 to RMB 9,750 per ton. Since July, prices have continued to decline, recently hitting a new annual low of RMB 7,500 per ton-highlighting growing supply-side pressure.

On the demand side, the outlook is equally concerning. While there has been a moderate increase in demand for adhesive tape jumbo rolls, other downstream sectors have underperformed. According to data from the BuyChem Research Institute, although jumbo roll production rose slightly in H1 2025-providing some support to butyl acrylate demand-the performance of acrylic emulsions was disappointing. More troubling is the export situation: from January to June 2025, China exported 123,200 tons of butyl acrylate, a 13.42% decline from 2024. This indicates continued weakness in global demand, further exacerbating domestic oversupply.

As new capacity continues to come online and downstream demand remains sluggish, rebalancing the butyl acrylate market could take longer than expected.