Price adjustments for Polyurethane raw materials in Europe

The demand for the polyurethane intermediate methylene diphenyl diisocyanate – MDI – is growing rapidly: more than 15 percent in the first six months of 2004 alone.

Bayer MaterialScience AG forecasts growth of around six percent per year up to 2008. Since the demand for MDI currently outstrips supply, there are major demands on production: “Our team is working flat out. Right now we are responding to market growth by taking comprehensive measures to maximize the availability of our existing plants. We succeeded in increasing the availability of our global MDI production plants by 10 percent compared to last year. That is a new record,” says Peter Vanacker, Head of the Polyurethanes Business Unit of Bayer MaterialScience AG.

“This underlines our position as the world’s leading manufacturer of polyurethane raw materials and our technology leadership in this area,” says Vanacker. Capacities for the MDI intermediaries nitrobenzene, aniline and MDA were also significantly increased.