China: BASF has blamed ‘force majeure’ for a disruption to the production of methylene diphenyl diisocyanate (MDI) at its Chongqing plant due to a supply shortage of natural gas from its syngas supplier. BASF says it is unable to determine when it will be able to resume production as its syngas supplier has been unable to tell it when the input will be restored. The German-headquartered chemical multinational uses MDI to manufacture a number of products including insulation.