Bayer Starts Work On New Shanghai Plastics Plant
Bayer of Germany recently had a ground-breaking ceremony
for a new polycarbonate plant to manufacture Makrolon
(TM), a plastic widely used in consumer products including
CDs, DVDs, headlamp lenses, glazing and roofing systems.
This investment of US$450 million is the first stage of
a US$3.1 billion investment in Caojing, Shanghai.
When the plant begins production in the second quarter
of 2006, it will expand step by step, and have an eventual
capacity of 200,000 tons annually. The facilities in Caojing,
a new industrial area in the south of Shanghai, will be
dedicated to the manufacture of polymers, and will eventually
cover 1.5 kilometers. Bayer has plans for the company
to go public in China.
Bayer is also planning a production facility for polyisocyanates,
used in coating raw materials. Another project involves
production of HDI, which is used in the production of
high-quality polyurethane coatings for industrial, automotive,
wood and furniture coatings.
Bayer has a total of 22 companies in Greater China, and
has invested more than 1.1 billion euros in the region.
Of the 22 companies, 15 have manufacturing facilities
in the region, and it represents Bayer's second largest
single market in Asia.
Bayer Technology Services (Shanghai) Company Ltd. also
recently opened its Shanghai office. The new company provides
technology assistance to Bayer customers so that they
can design cost-effective solutions and products with
the company's products.
German companies have been aggressively expanding their
presence in China, and German chancellor Gerhard Schroder
is currently visiting in China, making his fifth trip
to the country since becoming chancellor in 1999. During
this visit, he met with Chinese premier Wen Jiabao to
lobby for German contractors to build the new proposed
hi-speed railway linking Beijing and Shanghai. Siemens
was the lead contractor for the Shanghai maglev train
linking downtown Shanghai and Pudong International Airport.
The project, which was dedicated in December 2002, is
widely viewed as a success.
The Japanese government is also actively courting the
Chinese government for this project, but there is strong
anti-Japanese sentiment in China, a leftover from Japan's
invasion of China during World War II. The situation became
worse in August, when workers working on a construction
project in Qiqihar dig up poison gas shells left by the
Japanese, and one died from the gas which leaked out.
Even though the Japanese government sent crews to China
to recover and process the shells, some Chinese collected
signatures to lobby their government not to reward the
project to any Japanese companies.
In his meeting with the German chancellor, Chinese premier
Wen Jiabao was non-committal, and said that the project
winner would be decided on the strength of its business
and technical merits.
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