Bayer MaterialScience (BMS) now says it will continue to operate its 125,000 t/y TDI plant at Brunsbüttel, Germany, for an undisclosed time period to meet strong demand from the bedding and automotive seating markets.

The facility in northern Germany was planned to close at the end of this year after the company's new €150 million gas-phase phosgenation-based plant with capacity for 300,000 t/y starts up at Dormagen, near its Leverkusen, Germany, headquarters.

Production facilities at Brunsbüttel are foreseen to be retrofitted to produce solely MDI.

Although pricing for TDI has been weak of late, volume development has been extraordinarily strong, BMS chief executive Patrick Thomas told journalists on the sidelines of the Bayer group's annual results press conference in late February.

Thomas said BMS' global TDI facilities have been operating at average capacity utilization rates of 85%, but the 300,000 t/y plant at Cajoing, China, is being run "flat out."