Production Output Up 24 Percent
Production output in all divisions with the exception of Siltronic rose in 2011 compared with the previous year. Capacity utilization at our chemical divisions was in excess of 80 percent. There were no unplanned facility shutdowns. At Siltronic, we reduced all production lines on a day-by-day basis in the fourth quarter due to weaker demand. Production costs rose 24 percent while production output climbed 10 percent.
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Capacity Utilization in 2011 | ||
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% |
Plant Utilization | |
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WACKER POLYSILICON |
84 | |
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WACKER SILICONES |
84 | |
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WACKER POLYMERS |
96 | |
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SILTRONIC |
74 | |
Investments in new manufacturing plants amounted to €922.7 million in 2011. Most funds flowed into the expansion of our polysilicon facilities. Production ramp-up at Nünchritz started in the third quarter and construction of a new polysilicon site in the US State of Tennessee began in April 2011. WACKER SILICONES opened its second pyrogenic-silica manufacturing facility in Zhangjiagang, China. The Kempten site, where pyrogenic silica had been produced, was closed in mid-August as planned. Production will continue at Burghausen and Nünchritz.
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Key Start-Ups | ||||
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Site |
Project |
Start-Up | ||
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Nünchritz |
Poly 9 expansion stage |
2011 | ||
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Zhangjiagang |
HDK® plant 2 |
2011 | ||
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Zhangjiagang |
Expansion of silicone sealants |
2011 | ||
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Nanjing |
Merchant dispersions |
2011 | ||
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Burghausen |
Expansion of 300 mm epitaxial wafer capacity |
2011 | ||
Our own Corporate Engineering teams are responsible for running all investment projects. The planning group in the USA was further expanded due to our large-scale project in Tennessee.
More than 500 Productivity Projects Completed
High productivity throughout the supply chain is a key to WACKER’s success. WACKER boosts productivity along the entire supply chain via its Wacker Operating System (WOS) program. Our goal is to continue to reduce specific operating costs every year. WACKER carried out more than 500 projects relating to its operations and corporate departments in 2011.
Our WOS Academy (founded in 2009) trained almost 100 employees in the application of new productivity methods such as Six Sigma during the year under review.
The standardization of global engineering processes was advanced. We are standardizing and optimizing core engineering processes using international multidisciplinary teams of specialists (plant, mechanical and I&C engineering, and maintenance).