Catalog BASF 2024

The field of activity of the German corporation BASF is the chemical industry. What began as a small factory producing aniline-based dyes, founded in 1865 by Friedrich Engelhorn, eventually grew into a huge corporation with an impressive range of products. The modern name is an abbreviation of the bulky Badische Anilin- und Soda-Fabrik (“Baden Aniline and Soda Factory”), used in the early years of the brand. Company started using the abbreviation after the list of manufactured products no longer corresponded to what was listed in the name.

The direction of activity was chosen successfully; there were few dye manufacturers in the world in those years, and until the beginning of the 20th century the company had no competitors at all. Working in such favorable conditions, it not only increased the range of dyes produced, but also expanded its scope of activities. Thus, 1902 was marked by the entry into the fertilizer market, where BASF had success. By that time, the company already owned hundreds of patents.

In 1925, BASF became part of the IG Farben AG concern, which united all the largest chemical manufacturers. By 1942, it already included hundreds of companies, both in Germany and other countries. After the end of World War II, the concern was divided into separate components, as a result of which BASF reappeared on the market. Despite all the difficulties of the post-war period, the manufacturer managed to quickly restore production capacity, expand the range of products, enter the markets of other countries and begin absorbing competitors.

Today, BASF is Germany's largest chemical concern with multimillion-dollar revenues. Most of the products produced are of little interest to ordinary consumers; they are intended for various types of industry; they are purchased in large quantities by factories from all over the world. However, the corporation also deals with goods for retail trade. For example, you can find fertilizers in stores, and cartridges for laser printers are also produced under the BASF brand. And those who witnessed the era of audio cassettes remember the models of this brand well. It should be mentioned here that it was this company that released the first tape for cassettes – although the format was developed by Philips in 1963, this corporation was unable to produce everything necessary on its own. For some time, BASF produced magnetic tape for others, and then decided to make its own models. It should be noted that they were not just popular, but legendary. Later, the production of floppy disks was also mastered. However, in 1991, amid a decline in interest in magnetic film media, it was decided to transform the BASF Magnetics division into an independent company, which changed its name to EMTEC Magnetics in 1997. The latter exists to this day, continuing to deal with information carriers. As for BASF cassettes, today they can only be found in the collections of connoisseurs.