Bookmark 10-09-2008

Bayer MaterialScience: Capacity Expansion in Shanghai

Bayer MaterialScience AG, Leverkusen, Germany, will begin constructing a world-scale plant for the polyurethane (PU) precursor toluylene diisocyanate (TDI) this year at the production site in Shanghai, China. The Chinese authorities have approved a plant with an annual capacity of 250,000 metric tons for the time being. That will increase the company’s worldwide TDI capacity to over 700,000 t/a. The production capacity of the new plant will be increased to 300,000 t/a at a later date. With the construction of the new TDI plant, Bayer’s gas-phase phosgenization technology will be used for the first time on a global scale. With a production plant of this size, it will achieve savings in solvent consumption of about 80 % and consequently up to 60 % reduced energy input.

The TDI project is part of an extensive investment program by Bayer at the integrated site in Shanghai, which is currently being expanded into the Group’s biggest and most technically sophisticated production site in the Asia/Pacific region. Total investments of around EUR 2.1 billion are planned here by 2012. The world-scale plant for diphenylmethane diisocyanate (MDI) with an annual capacity of 350,000 metric tons will go on stream this year.