Bayer has released details of the biggest single investment in its 138-year history, a US$3.1 billion project in Shanghai, which will help to double sales in greater China in four years, as growth in Asia makes up for weak demand in Europe and North America.
Manfred Schneider, chairman of the board of management of Bayer, addressed a news conference during a visit to China this week by German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, who attended a signing ceremony for the Bayer project on Wednesday evening at the Great Hall of the People, together with Premier Zhu Rongji.
The project involves building eight factories in the Shanghai Chemical Industry Park in the city's Caojing district, to make coating systems, thermoplastics, base chemicals, precursors and polyurethane raw materials and other polymer products, from now until 2008.
Bayer executives will attend a ceremony today on the first factory, involving investment of US$110 million, with Mr Schroeder and Mr Zhu expected to be present. It is one of the biggest foreign investments in China.
Mr Schneider said the complex was aimed at meeting rising demand in Asia, which accounts for 16 per cent of group sales, up from 11 per cent in 1990, and was expected to rise to 25 per cent by 2010.
Present sales in greater China are US$1 billion a year, second in Asia after Japan with US$1.9 billion, and are expected to double to US$2 billion by 2005. Sales in greater China have grown by an average 17 per cent a year over the past 10 years, he said.