Lianheng Isocyanate, the joint venture of BASF and Huntsman and Chinese partners has received permission to double its MDI capacity in the Shanghai Chemical Industry Park (SCIP) to 480,000 t/y from the current 240,000 t/y.

The new capacity at the $1 billion complex, which went on stream in mid-2008, is due to be in place by 2016. The plant also produces MDI precursors aniline and nitrobenzene.

BASF and Huntsman each own 35% of the Lianheng Isocayanate, with the remainder in the hands of Shanghai Hua Yi, Sinopec Shanghai Gao Qiao Petrochemical Corporation and Shanghai Chlor-Alkali Chemical Co.

The SCIP complex also houses two other joint ventures.

Shanghai BASF Polyurethane Co, a partnership of BASF, Shanghai Hua Yi and Sinopec Shanghai Gao Qiao Petrochemical Corporation, operates an MDI finishing plant and a 160,000 t/y production facility for TDI and its precursors nitric acid and dinitrobenzene at the site.

Huntsman Polyurethane Shanghai, a joint venture between the US company and Shanghai Chlor-Alkali Chemical. operates an MDI finishing plant and a plant for prepolymers.

At BASF's Investors Day in London on May 22, board member Wayne Smith said the German group's wholly owned 400,000 t/y MDI plant at Chongqing in western China, will now go on stream in the second quarter of 2015, rather than in 2014 as planned. Smith said the delay is related to the Chinese government's decision to increase the price of gas paid by chemical producers.