Bayer will expand production of both MDI and polycarbonate in China

Bayer MaterialScience has won main board approval for E700m of investments in polyurethane and polycarbonate, and extending from the US to China. The company will now go ahead with projects to expand MDI and polycarbonate resin in China as well as chlorine feedstock in the US. It will also refurbish its future headquarters at Leverkusen.

The polycarbonate part of the programme covers a further 100 000 tpa of capacity in Caojing, near Shanghai, where an initial 100 000 tpa unit is nearing completion. The additional capacity is planned for completion by the end of 2007. The largest element in the investment is a 350 000tpa plant for PU intermediate diphenylmethane diisocyanate (MDI), also located at Caojing, due on line in 2008.

Hagen Noerenberg, BMS chairman, said: “These two new world scale production plants mean that we are very well equipped for the future given the continued strong increase in demand for these high quality material in the Asia Pacific region.”