A Century of Expansion and Progress

Company history A century of expansion and progress

m.t. of acetone—WACKER’s very first Martin Doriat had developed the process at product—left Burghausen for Leverkusen, Burghausen. Berg later became managing for conversion by Bayer into synthetic rubber director of WACKER. for use by the German Imperial Navy for its The first vinyl chloride plant started up submarines during the First World War. in 1938 at Burghausen, launching the era The Consortium für elektrochemi of WACKER PVC, which the company sche Industrie moved from Nuremberg to marketed under the trade name VINNOL®. Munich and the company relocated its head WACKER produced PVC for 60 years, office within Munich at the end of 1919, to beginning its exit from the business in July Prinzregentenstrasse 20/22. This would 1993—when it merged its PVC activities remain the company’s address until 1992. with those of Hoechst AG to create Vinnolit The company produced the solvent ethyl Kunststoff—and finally quitting the PVC acetate at Burghausen for the first time in business in 2000. 1920. Alexander Wacker in the same year French, Russian, and US forces modified the corporate ownership structure, occupied WACKER’s plants in February- switching to a family-owned holding May 1945. The rest of WACKER in company with himself as its first managing Munich and Burghausen was placed director. The agreement establishing this under US administration in July 1945 and company, signed in December 1920, remains almost all of the plants were shut down valid to this day—shares in Wacker Chemie until October, when production slowly SEMICONDUCTOR MATERIAL: AG belong not to individual members of the restarted. Allied control of WACKER Production of polycrystalline silicon in 1965. family, but to the holding company. ceased in March 1953 and the company The company at that time required capital was renamed Wacker-Chemie GmbH on to expand its output and product range so, in 8 April 1953. 1921, it sold 50% of its shares to Hoechst AG, During the 1950s, WACKER began lexander Wacker, born in Heidelberg a limited liability company at that time, via the process of switching from acetylene, in May 1846, laid the foundations an increase in share capital. By regulating the to ethylene, feedstock, for its vinyl plastic for the present-day Wacker Chemie company’s affairs in this manner, Alexander manufacturing operations. The switch was in AG when, on 13 October 1914, he Wacker, who died in April 1922, rendered line with the overall industry trend of shifting entered the Dr. Alexander Wacker, his life’s work secure for the future. from coal to crude oil as the starting material AGesellschaft für elektrochemische Industrie, WACKER was able to manufacture 20 for production. KG company in the trade register kept by the different products at Burghausen by late Dr. Walter Hafner developed the town of Traunstein, Germany. The company 1922, all of which were based on acetylene corresponding synthesis method, directly started to take shape in 1916-17. from carbide. Polyvinyl acetate (PVAc) oxidizing ethylene to acetaldehyde, which In 1916, the company’s headquarters was produced for the first time ever, by became the 2nd WACKER process to were established in Munich, and reacting acetylene with acetic acid, in 1924, cement its place in the history of chemistry. construction work started on the first by the Consortium, based on an invention In 1957, WACKER bought land in the factory building at Burghausen under by chemist Dr. Willy Herrmann. The first Merkenich district of Cologne to build an architect Professor Josef Hoffmann. commercial plant for PVAc, under the ethylene-to-acetaldehyde plant with capacity Production began at Burghausen on 7 VINNAPAS® trade name, began operating for 15,000 m.t./year of acetaldehyde. The December 1916 with the world’s first at Burghausen in 1930. VINNAPAS® plant received ethylene from Esso’s nearby industrial-scale synthesis of acetaldehyde, products became established in the 1930s, refinery complex and it initially shipped its followed by acetic acid. Construction also and PVAc was also used to make polyvinyl product by rail to Burghausen. began in 1916 on the 16-kilometer Alz alcohol under the POLYVIOL® trade name. WACKER agreed with Hoechst and canal. The Alz canal was completed in 1922 Dr. Gerhard Beier discovered vinyl acetate Marathon AG in 1965 to establish a refinery and it is still used by the Alzwerke power ethylene copolymers in 1960. at Burghausen. The Marathon refinery station to generate electricity. The first experimental work began in started operating in 1968 and the site’s steam In January 1917, the company started 1929 on the polymerization of vinyl chloride, cracker, today operated by Austria’s OMV, up the world’s first full-scale production which was obtained by adding hydrogen supplies the WACKER Burghausen site plant for synthetic acetone. Based on the chloride to acetylene. The company applied with ethylene. The last carbide furnace at 1st WACKER Process, the plant made in 1935 for a patent for the suspension Burghausen closed down in 1969. acetone via acetaldehyde and acetic acid. polymerization method for polyvinyl Meanwhile, WACKER had hired The first garlanded railcar carrying 15 chloride (PVC). Dr. Herbert Berg and Dr. Siegfried Nitzsche, a chemist from

OCTOBER 2014 An IHS Chemical Week Special Publication www.chemweek.com LANDMARK: Huge carbide storage silo at WACKER’s Burghausen plant in 1954. SQUEEZING OUT SILICONES: Output soared in the 1960s.

FIRST STEPS: Oxygen production plant at WACKER’s Burghausen site in 1916. > operations at Jena, eastern Germany, in 1947 and he by year-end making C h e m i t r o n i c began research work in August that year hyperpure silicon merging with on silanes and silicones. It was the first using the Siemens Siltronic, and step toward WACKER becoming one of process, establishing the polysilicon the world’s top silicone providers and a WACKER as DuPont’s business becoming technological leader in the field of silicon only rival in that field. part of WACKER. chemistry. Nitzsche’s team synthesized WACKER sold just 530 Meanwhile, the com- silanes in 1949 using the already developed kg of polysilicon in 1959, but the pany’s hyperpure polysilicon Mueller-Rochow process. The first silicone business expanded rapidly with the com- became of interest to the photovoltaic test plant started operating at Burghausen puter industry and the company founded industry and in 2000, the group sold in 1950 and the first silicone products Wacker Chemitronic GmbH as a wholly its first 1,000 m.t. of solar silicon. such as fluids and resins were marketed. owned subsidiary in 1968. The business, Demand for solar-grade polysilicon WACKER established its first silicone based in Burghausen, was the forerunner surged and WACKER launched the big- department in early 1953, and output of today’s Munich-based Siltronic AG gest investment plan in its history, spending reached 2,800 m.t. by 1964. WACKER semiconductor business. about €500 million in 2010 to expand expanded silicones capacity rapidly during WACKER constructed in 1969 the the main plant at Burghausen by 10,000 the 1960s in response to burgeoning first two full-scale plants at Burghausen m.t./year. This was followed by an addi- demand, starting up an additional plant for distilling the trichlorosilane precursor tional €900-million investment to begin at Burghausen in 1969 with initial silane and for producing polycrystalline silicon. polysilicon production at the Nünchritz site. capacity of 24,000 m.t./year and that same This hyperpure polysilicon was used to pull WACKER had acquired the Nünchritz year taking a 33.3% stake in Stauffer- monocrystalline silicon rods, which were silicone plant in the state of Saxony, eastern Wacker Silicones Corp. at Adrian, USA. processed into silicon wafers. Germany, in 1998, after German reunifica- WACKER became sole owner of the Chemitronic succeeded for the first time tion, for its silicones division. operation in 1987. In 1965, the company in 1973 in growing rods of hyperpure poly- Dr. Peter-Alexander Wacker was established Wacker Chemicals Corp. in crystalline silicon with a diameter of more appointed president and CEO of New York, which functioned initially than 20 centimeters. By the end of the WACKER in 2001. He had been a as a distribution site for major silicone 1970s, every other silicon atom used in the management board member of the com- customers in North America. world’s semiconductor technology had been pany since 1996. Blue Elephant Holding Chief chemist Dr. Eduard Enk had, in supplied by WACKER. GmbH, a holding company established 1953, launched studies on the manufacture Meanwhile, Dr. Max Ivanovits had by Wacker family members, acquired of hyperpure silicon, making him the father developed dispersible polymer powder, the 44% stake in WACKER still held of WACKER’s semiconductor business. based on the extraction of the water from by Sanofi-Aventis—the successor of Production of monocrystalline silicon rods dispersions. Large-scale production began Hoechst—in 2005 and the Wacker fam- began at Burghausen in 1955. Rod diameter in 1957 in one of Burghausen’s first powder ily became 100% owner. Under the lead of was originally 30 millimeters, and the purity towers with a capacity of 1,200 m.t./year. Peter-Alexander Wacker, a 30% stake in was one foreign atom per 10 million silicon WACKER expanded into Asian mar- the company was floated successfully on atoms. Today, purity is 99.99999999%. kets and established Wacker Chemicals the stock exchange through an initial pub- Siemens—the first company inEast Asia Ltd. in Tokyo in 1983. This was lic offering in April 2006. Germany to build transistors—transferred followed in 1984 by the establishment of a In May 2008, Peter-Alexander its licenses to WACKER in 1958 for subsidiary in Singapore. Wacker moved to the company’s super- depositing polysilicon and pulling silicon WACKER announced a major visory board and Dr. Rudolf Staudigl monocrystals. The Burghausen site began restructuring in 1994 with wafer became CEO. www.chemweek.com An IHS Chemical Week Special Publication OCTOBER 2014 Technical centers and WACKER ACADEMY An international network of expertise

roducts for local markets must ACADEMY brand name, the company be as diverse as the climates, disseminates its wealth of knowledge and environments, laws, and expertise which, as market leader, it has needs of the consumers using accumulated over many years in product them throughout the world. R&D and practical applications. The PThis diversity is the key to finding courses cover silicone applications as well lasting competitive products and as polymer chemistry. The WACKER services. It is why WACKER has ACADEMY works with the company’s a worldwide network of technical research facilities, as well as with competence centers and the WACKER universities and institutes, to ensure that ACADEMY to support its customers. its seminars remain state of the art. WACKER is one of the chemical Thanks to these advanced training industry’s most research-intensive facilities around the world, WACKER companies. The 21 technical centers offers an ideal platform for sector-specific that WACKER operates across Europe, networking, and it promotes local Asia/Pacific, and North and South know-how transfer with customers and America support the company’s sales and partners. Experienced instructors are marketing activities, liaising between from WACKER’s industrial and R&D sales offices and local production sites. operations. They are staffed by specialists in the With its network of 25 production polymer and silicone fields who speak the sites in Europe, Asia, and the language of WACKER’s customers and Americas—including major plants in PURSUIT OF EXCELLENCE: WACKER’s technical center at Seoul specializes in the development of understand their needs. These experts are Germany, the United States, China, silicones for electronics applications. familiar with regional raw materials and and South Korea—WACKER has an domestic markets, and they know which established presence in all of the world’s WACKER provides professional applications are in demand and which major economic regions. At present, the training at a total of five WACKER innovations are potentially interesting, company operates 21 technical centers ACADEMIES in the Americas, including so they can customize products to on four continents: in North and facilities in the United States, Mexico, and regional requirements. WACKER’s South America (Adrian, Allentown, Brazil. In Europe, seminars are held at the state-of-the-art technical centers help Dalton, Portland, Mexico City, and São Burghausen site in Germany as well as at customers to develop formulations for Paulo); Europe (Burghausen, Freiberg, the company’s training center in Moscow. new products and optimize the recipes Nünchritz, and Moscow); Australia Customers located in the Middle East and for their existing products. (Melbourne); and Asia, including Africa are attended to by the WACKER The 12 WACKER ACADEMY China (Shanghai and Shunde), India ACADEMY in Dubai. Training centers locations serve as a collection of forums (Mumbai and Kolkata), Japan (Tokyo in Mumbai, Shanghai, and Singapore, as for industry-specific knowledge transfer and Tsukuba), Singapore, South Korea well as Suwon (South Korea) complete between customers, distributors, and (Seoul), Taiwan (Hsinchu), and the WACKER’s offering in Asia. WACKER experts. They provide United Arab Emirates (Dubai). Most As part of a strategy to strengthen the access to a large pool of data and of these centers offer a broad range company’s presence in South and Southeast knowledge. Almost all of the WACKER of expertise, but some are highly Asia, WACKER recently upgraded its ACADEMY locations are adjacent specialized. For example, the company’s technical centers at Kolkata and Singapore. to WACKER technical centers—this technical center at Dalton, known The service and R&D center in Singapore promotes the sharing of ideas and enables as the world’s “carpet capital,” is the can now also provide technical support participants to conduct practical on-site company’s global mainstay for carpet to customers in the cosmetics, polishes, tests. The group, through the WACKER applications. WACKER’s Center of paper coating, and plastics processing ACADEMY, operates its own industry- Excellence Electronics (CoEE), located sectors. The regional center of excellence specific training and competenceat Pangyo, South Korea, is another at Amtala, near Kolkata—operated facilities that offer classroom-based example. The facility, which opened in by the Wacker Metroark Chemicals courses, online seminars, and individual 2012 and includes a cleanroom plant joint venture—has been enlarged. It training sessions about WACKER’s for silicones at nearby Jincheon, offers now provides cutting-edge application products and their application fields exclusive silicone expertise and R&D technology and test equipment for silicones for customers, development partners, services to the local electronics and used in the textile, personal care, and and distributors. Under the WACKER semiconductor industries. construction industries.

www.chemweek.com An IHS Chemical Week Special Publication OCTOBER 2014 Products and innovation The WACKER business model

ACKER is a global competitive method of reacting acetylene EARLY DAYS: One of WACKER’s first plants. manufacturer of state-of-the- and chlorine to produce tetrachloroethane. art specialty chemicals and Consortium scientists followed this up in these, it makes silicones, silicon wafers for materials. Its portfolio includes 1913 with an industrial-scale process to semiconductors, and binders and additives more than 3,200 products make acetaldehyde from acetylene, which based on polyvinyl acetate (PVAc) and vinyl Wfound in everyday items ranging from was used at Burghausen until 1968. It was acetate ethylene (VAE) copolymers. In cosmetic powders to solar cells, which known as the ‘1st WACKER Process’ and addition, it processes starch and/or dextrose are supplied to over 3,500 customers was licensed throughout the world. A year to make therapeutic proteins and food in more than 100 countries. Silicon is later, the Consortium’s researchers applied ingredients. Most of WACKER’s products WACKER’s main raw material. Silicon- for a patent on a ‘Method of producing are aligned with global megatrends and the based products account for 80% of sales, acetic acid from acetaldehyde.’ Acetic acid company commands leading positions and while the remaining 20% of its range is is the starting material in the produc- high market shares in most of its products. based primarily on ethylene. Customers tion of polyvinyl acetate, the basis for all As a manufacturer of silicones and range from consumer goods, food, WACKER VINNAPAS® products. polymers, WACKER is particularly well pharmaceuticals, textiles and the solar, Carbide production is highly energy- represented in key industries, such as the electrical/electronics and base-chemical intensive, so Alexander Wacker scoured automotive and construction sectors. It industries, to medical technology, biotech Bavaria for a site that could generate its own is also a major supplier of silicon wafers and mechanical engineering firms. The hydroelectricity. He selected Burghausen to the semiconductor industry. In recent company is among the three largest global because of the height difference between years, the company has greatly expanded players in its most important segments. the Alz and Salzach rivers. On 26 June its growing polysilicon business, which It all started more than 100 years ago 1913 the Kingdom of Bavaria granted him supplies hyperpure polycrystalline silicon when Alexander Wacker, a businessman permission to harness the water power of to the solar and semiconductor industries. rather than a chemist, spotted the potential the Alz. The rest is history. of electrochemistry, notably the electro- WACKER has reinvented itself several Competitive advantage thermal route to producing calcium carbide times over the past 100 years but has The WACKER Group’s key competitive and acetylene. In March 1903, Alexander always remained loyal to its main raw advantage is the highly integrated nature of Wacker founded the Consortium fÜr materials: acetylene, later ethylene, and its main sites at Burghausen and Nünchritz elektrochemische Industrie GmbH, the silicon metal, supplemented today by in Germany and Zhangjiagang in China. nucleus of WACKER’s future corpo- acetic acid and methanol. Byproducts from one process are used rate research arm, which is still known WACKER’s large-volume products as starting materials in others in a total as the Consortium. In the same year, the include siloxanes, fumed silica, polysilicon integration or Verbund process. Auxiliaries Consortium developed an economically and vinyl acetate monomer (VAM). From required in these processes, such as silanes, are recycled in a closed loop, and waste heat from one process is captured and used in other production lines. This results in lower costs compared with open production processes, as well as reduced energy and resource consumption. WACKER SILICONES supplies over 2,800 products, ranging from silicone fluids and emulsions, resins, elas- tomers and sealants, to silanes and fumed silica. The division manufactures both specialty products tailored to customers’ specific needs, and standard products. In 2013 WACKER had a 17% share of the €10-billion global silicones market, in second place behind Dow Corning, A VIEW FROM THE TOP: the market leader, and neck-and-neck WACKER’s largest manufactur- with Momentive Performance Materials. ing complex at Burghausen. Silicones have traditionally grown at a 3% premium to GDP. The company operates two fully integrated world-scale sili-

OCTOBER 2014 An IHS Chemical Week Special Publication www.chemweek.com cones sites at Burghausen and Nünchritz, strong service back-up through its numerous Germany, and a third fully integrated technical centers and also conducts joint facility at Zhangjiagang, China, in a joint product development with customers. venture with Dow Corning. WACKER SILTRONIC supplies leading SILICONES has the highest level of semiconductor manufacturers with silicon integration in the industry, with its own wafers. These are the essential basic fumed silica production. Its largest cus- materials for virtually all semiconductor tomers are the construction, processing products, including transistors and EVERYTHING STARTS FROM SILICON: 80% of additives and consumer care industries. rectifiers, microprocessors and memory WACKER’s business is based on silicon metal. WACKER POLYSILICON is one of the chips. SILTRONIC is the third largest world’s two largest producers of polysilicon, supplier of semiconductor silicon wafers 40 technology platforms. It owns 5,500 accounting for 23% of global output in 2013. after Sumco and Shin-Etsu, with a 14% patents and collaborates externally with Global polysilicon demand was worth an share of the global market last year. more than 40 academic institutions. New estimated €4 billion last year, with 75% of The company makes 300 mm wafers at products launched within the last five years production going to the solar market and Burghausen and Freiberg, Germany, and account for more than 20% of its sales. 25% to the semiconductor industry. The solar in Singapore. It has been consolidating WACKER’s R&D pipeline cov- polysilicon market is expected to grow at an smaller diameter wafers production and ers a diverse range of applications annual rate of 10-20%; semiconductors at now makes 200 mm wafers at Portland, and end-markets. In household and about 5% a year. WACKER is positioning OR, and in Singapore. personal-care products, it includes itself to meet this expanding demand, with WACKER BIOSOLUTIONS is silicone-based antifoams for deter- polysilicon shipments growing from 49,000 the smallest division, supplying custom- gents and silicone-based materials to m.t./year in 2013 to an estimated capacity ized biotech and catalog products to the improve the performance of shampoos, of 52,000 m.t./year this year. The ramp-up fine chemicals and life science industries. conditioners, creams and cosmetics. In of capacity at its greenfield Poly 11 plant in Products include pharmaceutical proteins, lithium-ion batteries, the company is Tennessee in the second half of next year will cyclodextrins, cysteine, polyvinyl acetate working on active anode materials and account for a major part of the capacity hike solid resins for gumbase, organic to 72,000 m.t./year in 2015. The company intermediates and acetylacetone. has the potential to raise capacity to 150,000 The division focuses on customer- m.t./year by debottlenecking and expanding specific solutions for applications all its facilities. WACKER has more such as food additives, pharma- than 50 years of experience in polysilicon ceutical actives and agrochemicals. production, with a first-in-class dedicated Nutrition and gums represented poly grade for solar and semiconductor 61% of BIOSOLUTIONS’ 2013 applications, including float zone. It has sales of €158 million, and were switchable reactor technology for polysilicon comprised of cyclodextrin and chunks for both applications. In addition, cysteine food ingredients and it boasts low specific energy consumption gumbase resins for chewing gum. and a broad customer portfolio based on The pharma and agro indus- HARNESSING WATER POWER: The river Alz provides Burghausen with competitive hydroelectricity. long-term contracts. Its unique production tries accounted for 34% of sales, setup includes fully integrated processes for including building blocks for phar- polysilicon and byproducts. maceuticals and agricultural chemicals, and electrolytes. In the automotive sector, WACKER POLYMERS manufactures auxiliaries and excipients for the pharma it is focusing on high-temperature- state-of-the-art binders and polymeric industry. Biopharmaceuticals, including cus- resistant silicones, high-performance additives, including dispersible polymer tom manufacturing of biologics, contributed coatings for airbags, and wafers for powders based on VAE, and dispersions only 5% of BIOSOLUTIONS’ sales, but automotive electronics. In building and used in diverse industrial applications WACKER’s strong technology and intel- renovation, WACKER is developing or as base chemicals. Customers include lectual property position should enable this improved VAE dispersions and silicone- the paints, coatings, paper and adhesives business to expand significantly. based building-preservation products, industries. Construction is the main outlet new binders and sealants, and new for polymeric binders, which are used in tile R&D and innovation building insulation materials. As a adhesives, dry-mix mortars, self-leveling WACKER is driven by innovation. major supplier of polysilicon to the pho- flooring compounds, and exterior thermal In 2013 it spent €174 million on R&D, tovoltaic industry, the company is insulation and finishing systems. WACKER equivalent to 4% of its €4.48 billion ($6.1 working on high-quality polysilicon for POLYMERS is a market leader in billion) turnover that year. Process and efficiency-leveraged cells and process dispersible polymer powders and dispersions, product optimization accounted for 38% of optimization. And in food and pharma, with more than 75 years of experience in total R&D spending, product development the focus is on cyclodextrin complexes VINNAPAS® dispersions. It is the only 29%, technology development 23%, and for the production of purely vegetarian manufacturer to have a complete supply basic research 10%. The group employs low-fat and low-cholesterol food, and chain for dispersions and powders in Europe, nearly 1,000 people in R&D and boasts a on segregation systems for the produc- Asia and the Americas. The company has a portfolio of 260 projects within more than tion of antibody fragments. www.chemweek.com An IHS Chemical Week Special Publication OCTOBER 2014 Going global from Bavaria

ACKER’S history spans a century of evolution starting in Bavaria, southern Germany, where founder Dr. Alexander Wacker commissioned the world’s first acetone plant at Burghausen. During its lifetime, WACKER has lived through economic upheaval, political turmoil, two world wars, and the German economic miracle, up to the present age of digitization and globalization. Alexander Wacker’s original legacy has been carried on by the company’s scientists, engineers, Wsalespeople and employees, who made WACKER first a leading European pioneer in industrial acetylene chemistry, then a trailblazer in plastics and finally an innovator in silicon chemistry. During these 100 years, WACKER has evolved from a broad-based, family-owned chemicals company into today’s publicly quoted global specialist employing more than 16,000 people whose products are targeted Specialist at high-growth, niche technology markets such as photovoltaics, electronics, construction and pharmaceuticals. group For most of its life – 80 years – WACKER was owned in equal parts by the Wacker family and Hoechst, then the world’s largest chemical company. The connection was celebrates severed after 1999 when Hoechst merged with France’s Rhône-Poulenc to create Aventis. The Wacker family acquired a controlling stake in WACKER in 2000 and 100th bought the remaining shares from Aventis’s successor, Sanofi-Aventis, in 2005. Peter-Alexander Wacker, the founder’s great-grandson, was CEO from 2001 to 2008. anniversary Under his leadership, WACKER went public in 2006. But the family connection is still strong. The Wacker family owns almost 70% of WACKER shares, the remaining 30% being listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.

This year sees WACKER celebrating its centennial. Over the last one hundred years, the group has constantly reinvented itself, yet still remained true to its “ roots. From our Bavarian origins in Burghausen and Munich, we have become a global player. Today, we operate major plants in Germany, the United States, China, South Korea, and Singapore, and are among the top three suppliers and technology leaders in all our key business areas on the world market. Researchers at our R&D facility, historically called Consortium, among many products invented methods to produce acetic acid, polyvinyl chloride, and polyvinyl acetate. Today, dispersions and dispersible powders based on polyvinyl acetate and ethylene form the basis of our WACKER POLYMERS division. They are used around the globe in a wide range of applications, from tile and carpet adhesives to dry-mix mortars and paper coatings. In the 1950s, WACKER gained unique expertise in silicon chemistry, starting with silicones. At that time, we were the first company in Europe to produce them. Now, our WACKER SILICONES division offers a diverse portfolio of close to 3,000 silicone products, which, thanks to their almost unlimited application potential, are used in a great many industrial sectors. WACKER POLYSILICON, too, emerged from the synthesis of silanes, the precursors of silicones. This division supplies hyperpure silicon to the chip and photovoltaic industries. In our own semicon- Rudolf Staudigl, ductor division, Siltronic, we process the silicon into wafers. WACKER’s president and CEO Tradition and innovation are not contradictory at WACKER; rather, they are interdependent aspects that enrich one another. This interplay of constancy since May 2008, is one of the and flexibility is reflected in our organizational structures, too. For example, alongside its large-scale production sites, WACKER runs a global network of 21 company’s longest-serving technical service centers where polymer and silicone experts provide customers with local support by modifying and enhancing our products. What’s more, the importance we attach to these promising markets of the future is shown by executives. He is passionate the fact that WACKER now generates over 85% of its sales outside Germany. Asia, accounting for over 40% of sales, is our key region. The Group has spent a cen- about the company he joined tury, in the words of its slogan, ‘Creating tomorrow’s solutions,’ a path that would not have been possible without our tradition and culture of innovation, a legacy more than 30 years ago. that our founder, Alexander Wacker, handed down to Wacker Chemie.”

www.chemweek.com An IHS Chemical Week Special Publication OCTOBER 2014