Bayer MaterialScience (BMS, Leverkusen / Germany; www.bayerbms.com) will integrate management of its major production sites at Leverkusen, Dormagen and Krefeld-Uerdingen under one umbrella, effective 1 July 2010. As the sites in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia are becoming increasingly interdependent, BMS board member Tony Van Osselaer said the company wants to operate them as an integrated network, similar to the structure at Shanghai / China and Baytown, Texas / USA. Klaus Jaeger, who led the build-up in Shanghai, will head the new German network. At the integrated German site, BMS is investing some EUR 150m in a new 300,000 t/y TDI plant.

Close cooperation within the network will create an organisational structure for uniform implementation of regulatory requirements, BMS stressed. The necessity for coordination has been driven home to Bayer in its struggle for permission to operate a CO pipeline that would feed the linked plastics production at Dormagen and Uerdingen. Start-up of the now completed pipeline continues to be held up by local protest. A court decision on the latest safety challenge is expected for the end of this year. BMS recently unveiled its megatrends for the future at a pre-"K 2010" press conference - see Plasteurope.com of 16.06.2010.