Production

Year-over-Year Increase in Production Output

In 2016, production output increased compared with the previous year. WACKER POLYSILICON sold higher volumes than ever before. Our chemical divisions also reported increased volumes, and high plant utilization of over 80 percent. There were no major facility shutdowns. Production costs were up 8.6 percent. At €472 million, maintenance costs were above the prior-year level.

Plant Utilization in 2016

 Download XLS

 

%

 

Plant Utilization Rate

 

 

 

WACKER SILICONES

 

98

WACKER POLYMERS

 

85

WACKER POLYSILICON

 

100

SILTRONIC

 

95

Investments in new production facilities amounted to €427.6 million in the reporting year (2015: €834.0 million). Most of this amount was spent on completing the new polysilicon production site in Tennessee, USA.

Corporate Engineering is responsible for implementing all investment projects at WACKER.

Key Start-Ups

 

Location

Projects

Year

 

 

 

Charleston

Polysilicon production plant

2016

Eddyville

Expansion of cyclodextrin capacity

2016

Burghausen

HTV silicone compounds

2016

Freiberg

Silicon rods in crystal-pulling facilities

2016

Priorities in Productivity

High productivity throughout the supply chain is a key to WACKER’s success. The Wacker Operating System (WOS) program helps us to boost productivity along the entire supply chain. Our goal is to continue reducing specific operating costs every year. In 2016, we implemented more than 700 projects in operational business and our corporate departments. Some 500 of these concerned operations, with the corporate departments accounting for about 200. WOS focuses on improving raw-material yields and specific energy consumption. We are working on a new approach to reduce specific production costs for 20 product groups in the chemical divisions.

During the year under review, our WOS ACADEMY (founded in 2009) held seven training courses at which almost 100 employees were trained in the application of new productivity methods, such as Six Sigma. In addition to these courses, we carried out projects aimed at reducing specific costs.