THE WOODLANDS, Texas—Huntsman Corp. said it is spending a combined $135 million to hike capacity at its Geismar, La., methylene diphenyl diisocyanate plant and upgrade downstream specialties production capability at its Rotterdam, Netherlands, MDI facility.
The firm will boost the Geismar site's capacity by 50,000 metric tons to 500,000 tons, using improved process technology the company has developed. The increased capacity for the chemical, used in polyurethane production, is expected to go on stream in 2014.
Huntsman said the Rotterdam facility will get a new state-of-the-art MDI splitter and downstream specialties manufacturing unit. These improvements will enable the firm to serve customers with a full range of next-generation, differentiated polyurethane products for automotive, adhesives, coatings and other applications.
The Woodlands-based company said the unit is designed to handle globally sourced MDI precursor and will start up in March 2014.