From Rubber & Plastics NewsPittsburgh, Pennsylvania-Bayer MaterialScience llc will close its Desmodur CB aromatic polyisocyanate production plant in New Martinsville, West Virginia by the end of the first quarter of 2005.The company said the facility has been under-utilised for some time. Workers affected by the closure will assume other responsibilities within the New Martinsville site, where the firm makes thermoplastic urethanes, polyurethane dispersions and polyurethane raw materials.Demand for Desmodur CB-used as a raw material for general industrial, wood and magnetic tape coatings-"has decreased significantly over the last several years," according to Don Hummel, head of the Coatings, Adhesives and Sealants business, Bayer MaterialScience NAFTA. "The current market size does not justify domestic manufacture of this product any longer."Bayer will supply equivalent products, manufactured at the firm´s Leverkusen, Germany, facility under the name Desmodur L, to North American markets in after it shuts down the plant."
