Covestro To Shutter Isocyanate Facility

Covestro, the former Bayer MaterialScience business, will close a methylene diphenyl diisocyanate (MDI) unit in Tarragona, Spain, by the end of 2017 because of high production costs. Up to 120 jobs will be affected. Covestro says it considered adding capacity at the site for chlorine, a raw material it buys for the polyurethane foam precursor. But the firm decided instead to expand MDI capacity at an existing European site where it already has what it calls “modern and reliable supplies of chlorine.” Many Spanish chlorine suppliers have yet to say whether they will meet an end-of-2017 deadline to switch to a mercury-free method of making the chemical.