GERMAN chemical group BASF said it may invite global partners to take stakes in a newly announced MDI plant in China to make raw materials for polyurethanes, a company executive said yesterday.

But John Feldmann, a board member of BASF AG responsible for plastics, oil and gas, didn't name any potential partners, saying it's still evaluating.

The world's largest chemical maker on Tuesday said it has selected Chongqing, a city in western China, as a possible place for its second MDI plant in the country, which will come on stream in 2010.

The new plant will have annual production capacity of 400,000 tons of crude MDI. Feldmann, who spoke to Shanghai Daily at the opening ceremony for a new polyurethane specialties factory in Pudong, declined to reveal the investment figure for the new project, only saying it would be "a lot of money."

BASF inaugurated a US$1 billion MDI and TDI complex in Shanghai last year with American firm Huntsman and three Chinese companies. Both MDI and TDI are raw materials for the making of polyurethanes which are used in the automotive and construction industries as well as in refrigerators and footwear.

The Shanghai plant is capable of making 240,000 tons of crude MDI and 160,000 tons of TDI a year.

Earlier reports had said BASF, Huntsman and the Chinese firms were considering to build another MDI plant.

China's polyurethanes demand is forecast to expand at about 10 percent through 2015, a growth that will make the nation the world's largest market for the plastic, BASF said.