Urethane Blog

Covestro and China

March 15, 2018

China is biggest market for Covestro

German plastics and chemicals producer Covestro said China became its largest single market last year as the company’s sales volume grew 8 percent annually, which rode on China’s rising chemicals prices.

Covestro reaped over 3 billion euros (US$3.7 billion) in sales in China, which accounted for 22 percent of its global sales of 14 billion euros last year, it said today.

The company’s sales volume in China was followed by Germany where they gained 6 percent while the United States came in flat from a year ago.

Covestro has benefited from rising prices of specialty chemicals and its applications, “both echoing China’s rising efforts in sustainability,” said Bjoern Skogum, the company’s president for China.

China’s chemical industry grew fastest over six years in 2017 with profit rising in most of the chemical products, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

Covestro has benefitted from rising prices of methylene diphenyl diisocyanate, or MDI, one of its main materials in China, which have doubled from January to October last year to 45,000 yuan (US$7,113) per ton.

MDI outperforms most composite materials in insulation and flexibility to help save energy and cut carbon emissions.

Covestro’s Caojing factory in Shanghai, its largest globally, will lift MDI capacity to 500,000 tons per year in coming years from 460,000 tons a year, according to Skogum.

https://www.shine.cn/archive/business/China-is-biggest-market-for-Covestro/shdaily.shtml

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