Bayer to invest $1b in Asia

Bayer to invest $1b in Asia

BANGKOK (Dow Jones): Bayer AG, the German chemicals company, said Thursday it plans to invest US$1 billion in Asia before 2005 to raise its plastics production capacity.

By that year, Bayer expects to produce 250,000 tons a year of polycarbonate at plants in Thailand and China.

Thursday, the German company opened its Thai polycarbonate plant located in Thailand's eastern seaboard industrial belt.

The plant has an annual capacity of 80,000 tons, which the company hopes to increase to 120,000 by 2001.

Bayer plans to build a separate polycarbonate complex in Shanghai, with the first production phase beginning in 2003.

"Asia is the fastest growing market for plastics worldwide, and the strong demand for polycarbonate will fuel this growth," Bayer said in a statement,

Polycarbonate is a thermoplastic resin used for the manufacture of automotive components, advertising billboards, and drinking water containers, among others.