ANTWERP, Belgium (Dec. 3)—Bayer MaterialScience plans to boost production of a key methylene diphenyl diisocyanate precursor at its Antwerp site to support previously announced expansion plans for MDI.
Bayer will spend about $27 million to add 75,000 metric tons of annual aniline capacity at its Antwerp site by early 2006 by expanding an existing unit and building a second plant. The projects will raise annual capacity at Antwerp to 215,000 tons for the key precursor of MDI.
Bayer previously had announced expansions of about 140,000 tons by 2006 at MDI plants in Tarragona, Spain; Brunsbuttel, Germany; and Baytown, La., raising the firm's global capacity to more than 500,000 tons.
The new plant, with a capacity of 50,000 tons, represents the first use of a new process for making aniline which cuts investment and manufacturing costs, Bayer said.