BASF has inaugurated the expansion of its alkyl polyglucosides — APGs — production capacity at its Cincinnati site, the company announced in a news release on Oct. 27, completing a project first announced in 2023 and strengthening the plant’s role in the company’s North American supply network.
APGs are bio-based, readily biodegradable, mild, non-ionic surfactants derived from 100 percent natural and renewable feedstocks, according to BASF. The ingredients are used in personal care products, home care and laundry products, industrial and institutional cleaning, industrial formulations and agricultural applications — the everyday cleaning and care products made by BASF’s customers.
“The Cincinnati expansion represents an important step in reinforcing BASF’s leadership in the U.S. APG market,” Gisela Pinheiro, BASF Senior Vice President for Home Care and Industrial & Institutional Cleaning, said in the company’s release. “Combining our broad APG portfolio and formulation expertise with expanded regional production allows us to work even more closely with customers. It strengthens our ability to support innovation and sustainability targets across a wide range of applications.”
The company said the expansion, first announced in 2023 alongside a planned expansion in Thailand, is intended to increase local supply for North American customers and reduce cross-regional shipments. Cincinnati now sits in a four-site global APG network alongside Düsseldorf, Germany; Jinshan, China; and Bangpakong, Thailand, according to BASF.
BASF markets its APGs under trade names including Glucopon, Plantaren, Agnique PG and Disponil APG, according to reporting on the inauguration by Chemical Engineering. The Cincinnati site is part of BASF’s Care Chemicals division, which supplies ingredients for cosmetics, detergents and cleaners as well as technical applications.
For Cincinnati, the inauguration is a manufacturing story with a sustainability label: a plant in the city is now making more of the plant-based ingredients that go into shampoos, detergents and cleaners sold across North America, instead of those ingredients being shipped in from BASF sites overseas.
BASF, headquartered in Ludwigshafen, Germany, employs around 95,000 people worldwide and generated sales of around 60 billion euros in 2025, according to the company. It did not disclose the size of the Cincinnati investment or any job figures tied to the expansion in its release. What happens next for the Cincinnati plant is production: the expanded capacity is now commissioned and supplying customers from within North America, the company said.