GUANGZHOU, March 29 (Xinhua) -- The German chemicals giant BASF Friday inaugurated a new liaison office in the southern city of Zhanjiang, a step closer to implementing its plans for a Verbund chemical production site in China.

A storage silo stands at BASF SE headquarter chemical plant on the bank of the River Rhine in Ludwigshafen, Germany, on Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2019.  (File photos: VCG)

The planned Verbund site in Zhanjiang, Guangdong Province, would be BASF's largest investment, which is estimated to reach up to 10 billion U.S. dollars by completion.

According to Lin Hanping, project leader of BASF's Zhanjiang Verbund site, the project will include a wholly-owned steam cracker with a planned capacity of 1 million tonnes of ethylene per year and several plants for consumer-oriented products and solutions.

The first batch of plants is expected to come into operation by 2026 at the latest, Lin added.

"The Zhanjiang site will offer solutions to help our customers in southern China manufacture high value-added products more efficiently, more sustainably and with high quality," said Sanjeev Gandhi, member of the board of executive directors of BASF SE, responsible for the Asia Pacific.

Under the Verbund system, production is highly integrated to make the best use of synergies in infrastructure, logistics, raw materials and energy.

Lin said the site would ultimately be the third-largest BASF site worldwide, following Ludwigshafen, Germany and Antwerp, Belgium, providing products and solutions for local and multinational manufacturers in southern China in industries including automotive, construction, high-speed rail, electronics, home and personal care and even aerospace.

Jiang Jianjun, mayor of Zhanjiang, said the city would build a modern petrochemical industry base through this project, integrating the world's most advanced production concepts and management experience into local development, opening up wider to the outside and achieving high-quality development.