The new production base in Nanjing will host two BASF plants, a 40,000 tons per year quaternized cationic monomers plant and a 20,000 tons per year cationic polyacrylamides plant. Cationic monomers are a key feedstock for cationic polyacrylamides. Cationic polyacrylamides are used as organic flocculants in the watertreatment industry and as retention aids in the paper industry.The two BASF plants, which are designed to high international standards of safety and energy efficiency, are expected to start up production in the third quarter of 2012. They mark the first Asian manufacturing of these products for BASF.The water treatment and papermaking industries are growing at a high rate in Asia, particularly in China.