Bayer.

With a major investment totaling some 1 billion Euros ($860 million), Bayer is said to be setting its sights on becoming the world's largest polycarbonate producer within the next five years. Bayer plans to double its Makrolon polycarbonate resin capacities from its present level of 650,000 tons per year to 1.3 million tons per year by 2005. Bayer will then have a total of five production centers for Makrolon strategically positioned in the world's key economic regions. Within the NAFTA region, Makrolon polycarbonate resin production at Bayer's Baytown, TX facility will reach an annual 350,000 tons by 2005. Most of the focus will be on the booming markets in Asia-Pacific, where Bayer expects double-digit growth rates for polycarbonate. In the company's Map Ta Phut, Thailand plant, capacity is to be increased in two stages from its current level of 50,000 tons per year to 350,000 tons per year by 2005. In its expansion plans for Asia, the company also intends to step up production of Makrolon at its planned facility in the Caojing Chemical Park in Shanghai, China, from 50,000 tons in 2003 to 100,000 tons per year by the end of 2004. Within the European market, Bayer recently started up a melt carbonate plant in Antwerp, Belgium that can now produce 40,000 tons per year of polycarbonate for all of Makrolon's viscosity grades. Bayer is headquartered in Pittsburgh, PA.