Polymer Giant Covestro: China's 600,000-ton MDI Expansion Plan Announced Before The End of The Year

"The final decision on site selection, construction planning, scale, and investment amount will be announced before the end of this year." In the list of major construction projects in Shanghai in 2022 announced by the Shanghai Development and Reform Commission, Covestro's 600,000-ton MDI expansion project is listed. . Regarding the progress of the project, Lei Huanli, global senior vice president of polymer giant Covestro and president of China, said in an interview with The Paper recently that the feasibility study of the project is progressing smoothly, and relevant plans are advancing ahead of schedule. 

In September last year, Covestro stated that the company is studying the construction of a world-class MDI factory in the United States or China, and the new factory is scheduled to be put into operation in 2026. At present, Covestro's domestic MDI production capacity reaches 600,000 tons/year.

According to the report of the Prospective Industry Research Institute, MDI is mainly divided into polymerized MDI and pure MDI, of which polymerized MDI accounts for about 80% of the total market demand and is mainly used for construction, various industrial molding and refrigeration. The development of the global MDI industry has a history of more than 50 years, and the technical threshold is high. The global masters of its production technology are mainly Wanhua Chemical Group Co., Ltd. (Wanhua Chemical, 600309), BASF, Covestro, Huntsman and other industry leaders. Ministry of Enterprise.

In 2021, the global MDI production capacity will be about 9.67 million tons. China is the largest MDI producer in the world. At present, the total domestic production capacity is 3.96 million tons, accounting for 41% of the global proportion.

Lei Huanli said that Covestro attaches great importance to the Chinese market. In 2021, Covestro's sales in China will account for 22%, a year-on-year increase of 57.5%, making it the company's largest single market in the world. By the end of 2021, Covestro's total investment in China has exceeded 3.8 billion euros (equivalent to RMB 26.1 billion), and the cumulative investment of Covestro's Shanghai integrated base has reached 3.6 billion euros (equivalent to RMB 24.75 billion).

Lei Huanli said that Covestro will continue to participate in the China International Import Expo this year.

Covestro is one of the largest polymer manufacturers in the world. It was formerly known as Bayer Material Science in Germany. development of innovative solutions. In 2021, Covestro's sales will reach 15.9 billion euros (equivalent to 109.3 billion yuan), a year-on-year increase of 48.5%, a record high; net profit will reach 1.6 billion euros (equivalent to 11 billion yuan), a year-on-year increase of 248.58%.