Bayer to close West Virginia MDI plant

PITTSBURGH (June 27)—Bayer Corp. will shut down one of the two methylene diphenyl diisocyanate plants at its site in New Martinsville, W.Va., under a cost-reduction drive within its polyurethanes business. With an annual MDI capacity of 80 million pounds, the unit to be idled had been significantly impacted by high oil prices, said a spokesman for Bayer Corp., the U.S. subsidiary of Bayer A.G. "With today's increased costs for raw materials and energy used to produce MDI, it is no longer economically feasible for us to operate this MDI unit," said Lawrence Stern, Bayer president, polyurethanesùNAFTA, in a prepared statement. Bayer said it would continue making MDI at the remaining unit in New Martinsville and at its newer MDI facility in Baytown, Texas, which began production in 1998. Bayer Corp.'s MDI capacity in the U.S. is about 660 million pounds per year, according to the company spokesman. Production of toluene diisocyanate, specialty polyurethanes and polyol blends are to continue at the New Martinsville plant, Bayer said.