CHARLOTTE, NC, May 16, 2011 – Effective June 1, 2011, or as contract terms allow, BASF will increase pricing for its range of wet end paper chemicals sold into the North American paper market. The affected product families include retention and dry strength chemicals, fixatives, sizing chemicals, colorants, and water management chemicals, including deaerators, defoamers, flocculants and coagulants. The price increases will range from 5% to 15%, depending on the product. This action is necessary to offset cost increases of petroleum based feedstocks and down stream raw materials, as well as increased costs for transportation.

About BASF’s Paper Chemicals division

BASF’s Paper Chemicals division offers process chemicals to optimize costs and increase machine efficiency, functional chemicals to lend specific properties to paper, and finishing chemicals to improve the appearance and performance characteristics of printed paper and board. With this comprehensive portfolio, BASF is the leading supplier of paper chemicals worldwide.  BASF established Paper Chemicals as a separate division when it acquired Ciba in April 2009. The ISO 9001:2000-certified Paper Chemicals division operates sites in Europe, Asia and the Americas. For more information, go to http://www.paper-chemicals.basf.com

BASF - The Chemical Company.

BASF Corporation, headquartered in Florham Park, New Jersey, is the North American affiliate of BASF SE, Ludwigshafen, Germany. BASF has approximately 16,400 employees in North America, and had sales of $17.7 billion in 2010. For more information about BASF’s North American operations, visit www.basf.us.

BASF is the world’s leading chemical company: The Chemical Company. Its portfolio ranges from chemicals, plastics, performance products, and agricultural products to oil and gas. As a reliable partner, BASF creates chemistry to help its customers in virtually all industries to be more successful. With its high-value products and intelligent solutions, BASF plays an important role in finding answers to global challenges, such as climate protection, energy efficiency, nutrition and mobility. BASF posted sales of more than €63.9 billion in 2010 and had approximately 109,000 employees as of the end of the year. Further information on BASF is available on the Internet at www.basf.com or in the Social Media Newsroom at newsroom.basf.com.