Bayer steadily increasing polycarbonate capacity

11-Dec-06

Bayer MaterialScience AG is steadily increasing polycarbonate production at its various sites worldwide, as global demand for Makrolon® continues to rise, with capacity set to rise to 1,200,000 tpa at the end of 2006. To keep pace with market demand for Makrolon®, Bayer MaterialScience increased capacity at its existing large-scale plants by a total of 170,000 tons between 2004 and 2005. The annual capacity is split among sites in Baytown (United States) providing 260,000 tpa, Antwerp (Belgium) 240,000 tpa at Uerdingen (Germany) 330,000 tpa, and Map Ta Phut (Thailand) 270,000 tpa. With the commissioning the new plants at the Shanghai integrated production site in 2006, annual capacity of 100,000 tpa was added to cater to the fast growing markets in Asia. Due to the continued increase in demand, this additional capacity is to be doubled during 2008. When capacities for Makrolon® production are added together, Bayer MaterialScience produces 1.2 million tons of Makrolon® a year, making it the biggest manufacturer of polycarbonates in the world. An investment outlay of around EUR 80 mln has been earmarked by the company to be invested to build up a network in Asia in the next few years, allowing the company to offer excellent technical service locally and supply customers quickly and flexibly. Part of the investment spend will be towards building additional compounding plants in China and India. A Color Competence Center (CCC) is to be built at the compounding plant in Shanghai, in production since 2005. A compounding plant with an integrated Color Competence Center is to come into operation in southern China in the first half of 2008. Under planning is an investment in Bayer MaterialScience's new site in New Delhi, to come onstream towards the end of 2008. Bayers' existing successful network of existing compounding plants with integrated Color Competence Centers are located in Filago (Italy), Newark (Ohio, United States) and Map Ta Phut (Thailand).