Bayer plans further expansion in Asia

The Bayer Group plans to further expand its production, distribution network and research activities in Asia and considerably increase its sales in the region in the coming years. "We aim to achieve a more than 60 percent increase in our sales in Asia by 2015," Management Board Chairman Dr. Marijn Dekkers said on Wednesday at Bayer’s international press conference "Perspective on Growth in Asia," held in Shanghai, China. This would mean annual sales of well over EUR 11 billion by 2015 at today’s exchange rates. Of this figure, Greater China is planned to account for some EUR 6 billion. Dekkers officially inaugurated a new production facility for TDI - a raw material for the production of flexible foams - at the Bayer Integrated Site Shanghai.

On Wednesday, in the presence of numerous guests as well as high-ranking politicians and officials, Dekkers inaugurated a new TDI production facility with a planned capacity of 250,000 tons per year at the Bayer Integrated Site Shanghai. The plant is based on a new process technology that reduces solvent use by some 80 percent compared with plants of a similar size that use the conventional process. It also lowers energy consumption by up to 60 percent. The use of this technology also enables substantial savings on operating costs and a reduction of roughly 60,000 tons per year in carbon dioxide emissions. In addition, the new technology cuts the investment costs for large-scale plants of this type by around 20 percent.

"We have been operating at the Shanghai Chemical Industry Park for ten years," the Bayer CEO remarked. Bayer MaterialScience has invested EUR 2.1 billion in production facilities for all of its major products on this site. The company intends to follow this first phase of investment with a second phase. Bayer plans to spend a further EUR 1 billion to expand its MDI capacity to 1 million tons per year, increase its polycarbonate capacity to 500,000 tons annually and build a new HDI line that will raise annual capacity by 50,000 tons. "These are considerable capital expenditures involving significant capacity expansions. It goes without saying that we use the very latest technology in our facilities," Dekkers stressed.

Source: http://www.plastinfo.ru/