BASF wins Saturn award for second consecutive year

No defects earns BASF "Outstanding Supplier Achievement Award"

SOUTHFIELD, Mich., October 2, 2001 – For the second consecutive year, BASF Coporation's Automotive OEM Coatings Regional Business Unit received Saturn Corporation's Outstanding Supplier Achievement Award. The automotive manufacturer recognized BASF for supplying coating systems with no defects or rejections over the course of a production year.

By virtue of earning the Outstanding Supplier Achievement Award for zero defects, BASF also received Saturn's Supplier Quality Achievement Award for accomplishing less than 30 defects per million units.

"Formulating, producing, shipping and applying automotive coatings is a very complex, intricate and demanding process. Considering the number of steps, people and other parameters involved, having no flaws whatsoever in the products we supply to this important customer for an entire year makes a strong statement about the value we bring to Saturn," said Martin Laudenbach, Group Vice President, BASF Automotive OEM Coatings. "We accept this award with tremendous pride."

In recognition of receiving this prestigious award, BASF is currently displaying a Saturn Coupe painted with a unique, bright metallic orange finish in front of the company's Automotive Campus in Southfield, Mich. This innovative finish, developed in BASF's color development laboratories, is an unusual combination of special flake pigments and a BASF Zapon™ color dye that is normally used in BASF fiber products. Although an experimental product, BASF Automotive OEM Coatings is pursuing the potential commercialization of bright color finishes on vehicles in the future. Saturn has previously displayed this particular vehicle at the Los Angeles Auto Show.