Germany. The Bayer Group's subsidiary, MaterialScience, began with the construction of a new raw materials plant for polyurethane coatings, located in Chempark Leverkusen. The hexamethylene diisocyanate and isophorone diisocyanate products to be worked on at the plant are primarily used for high-performance, environmentally friendly automotive and industrial coatings.
The company will invest around $35 million (about US$46 million) in expanding its production capacity and the plant is expected to start operating in the summer of 2013.
On the other hand, the chemicals subsidiary revealed its results for 2011, which, according to the company, were below expectations; although there were increases in billings and prices of the business units, the quantities sold did not increase as expected.
High-performance materials increased their sales by 6.7% to 10,832 million euros (about US$14 billion). Raw materials for paints, adhesives and specialties rose by 4.5% due to the effects of exchange and portfolio rates.
EBITDA, before special items, fell 13.6% to 1,171 million euros (about US$1.5 billion), a result caused by the increase in the value of raw materials and which could not be offset by the increase in sales prices. The operating costs of China's TDI plant also grew.
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