German chemical giant BASF announced on Monday that it had broken ground for a polyethylene (PE) plant at its Verbund site in Zhanjiang, Guangdong province.

The new plant, with a capacity of 500,000 tons of PE annually and scheduled to start up in 2025, would serve the fast-growing demand in China, it said in a statement.

"China's demand for PE has experienced rapid growth and is going to outpace the rest of the world," said Bir Darbar Mehta, senior vice-president of petrochemicals Asia-Pacific at BASF.

"With the groundbreaking ceremony, BASF will enter the PE market in China via a competitive production footprint at its fully integrated production site in Zhanjiang, catering to our customers in the consumer goods, packaging, construction and transportation industries," he said.

Polyethylene is a light, versatile thermoplastic polymer produced from ethylene. It is used in a wide range of applications from heavy-duty storage tanks and pipelines to flexible packaging and films.