Bayer MaterialScience celebrates new milestone

SHANGHAI – Bayer MaterialScience (BMS) celebrated the production of its one millionth tonne of polycarbonate at Bayer Integrated Site Shanghai (BISS). This achievement underlines the fact that BMS is to date one of the companies if not the only company that is able to provide ample supply of necessary demand for polycarbonate from China to its local and global customers in Asia Pacific.

Polycarbonate, invented by Bayer over 60 years ago and has been continuously developed, can also be used in many applications currently growing at high speed in China. The close proximity is fuelling the progress. The operations of corporate clients who manufacture in China and APAC are benefiting from the company’s close proximity to BISS, according to Dr. Markus Steilemann, Global Head of the Polycarbonates Business Unit at BMS. The company is also able to closely coordinate with customers in the development of innovative solutions at its regional innovation hub at the Polymer Research & Development Centre.

Strong collaboration with local partners in the automotive and transportation industries has already produced results. Customers have chosen polycarbonate from Bayer to improve safety and comfort for passengers in railways, create pioneering interior design and realize significant energy savings by making cars and carriages lighter. Further to this, with a strong push to create a broad infrastructure in eMobility, polycarbonate from Bayer has been selected to be used in a number of products such as EV chargers. With energy efficiency increasingly gaining important in the construction sector, designers and manufacturers now choose polycarbonate-based LED lighting over incandescent bulbs in order to switch to a more energy-efficient lighting system.

The interiors of railroad, subway and trolley cars have changed significantly in recent years. What was uniform and often uncomfortable has become stylish and highly functional, with state-of-the-art lighting concepts, comfortable seating and spacious aisles. Notebooks can become significantly slimmer and shed even more weight thanks to polycarbonate that can be moulded in any desired shape are also turning the latest generation of televisions into elegant works of art. Ultramobile notebook housings made of reinforced polycarbonate can be up to 45 per cent thinner. Electronic devices that employ this innovative high-performance plastic can also weigh up to 100 grams less. China consumed about 1.3 million  MT of polycarbonate in 2012,  or about 35% of global consumption.