Three levers will continue to determine WACKER’s business strategy over the next two years: expansion into emerging markets and regions, innovations, and the substitution of existing products with WACKER products. The focal regions for further growth are Brazil, China, India, Southeast Asia and the Middle East. Of these, China offers the greatest potential. We also see opportunities for sales growth in the USA, an established market.
Adhering to its strategy, WACKER will drive forward its international expansion over the next two years. We will make a concerted effort to build up our network of technical competence centers and WACKER ACADEMY locations. Other priorities for spurring international business include transferring greater operational responsibility to the regions and tailoring new products even more closely to local requirements.
We will be placing greater emphasis on managing resources in 2013, which specifically entails the following:
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Resource-Management Measures | |
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Pursuing investment policies that are cash-flow oriented |
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Creating more competition in procurement and expanding our global supplier base |
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Limiting our material costs |
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Streamlining our workflows |
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Exercising caution when creating new jobs |
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Productivity measures at WACKER POLYSILICON |
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Executive Board Responsibilities Reorganized from January 1, 2013
The Supervisory Board of Wacker Chemie AG appointed Dr. Tobias Ohler as a new Executive Board member with effect from January 1, 2013. Dr. Wilhelm Sittenthaler left the Executive Board for personal reasons with effect from December 31, 2012. The appointment of Dr. Tobias Ohler to the Executive Board of Wacker Chemie AG prompted a reorganization of board responsibilities.
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Executive Board Responsibilities as of January 1, 2013 | ||||
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Dr. Rudolf Staudigl |
President & CEO | |||
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WACKER POLYSILICON | |||
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Dr. Tobias Ohler |
WACKER POLYMERS | |||
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Dr. Joachim Rauhut |
SILTRONIC | |||
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Auguste Willems |
WACKER SILICONES | |||
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Structural Changes
Several, non-core units and business activities were reorganized effective January 1, 2013.
- Pyrogenic silica (HDK®) production at the Burghausen plant, previously under the umbrella of WACKER POLYSILICON, has now been allocated to WACKER SILICONES. As a result, the HDK® production employees are now managed by WACKER SILICONES.
- WACKER’s salt business, the sales and profit for which were previously reported under WACKER POLYSILICON, is now treated as part of the “Other” segment.
- Apart from sales between WACKER POLYSILICON and Siltronic, WACKER will no longer report internal sales separately.
These measures will reduce WACKER POLYSILICON’s 2013 sales total by around €100 million, on a comparable basis to the previous year.
The infrastructure units in China and the USA will also be reported under “Other” from now on. WACKER already reports site management and infrastructure-unit employees at Burghausen and Nünchritz under this segment.
Value Management
The pre-tax cost of capital employed dropped in 2013. Every year, we review the cost of capital at each business division and determine specific risk premiums (beta coefficient). To calculate the BVC, the cost of capital and non-operational factors are deducted from EBIT. Every division is set a BVC target that is calculated during the planning stage. This target is combined at the Group level into one value.
The pre-tax cost of capital employed for 2013 is 11 percent (2012: 12 percent). Two factors prompted us to adjust the cost of capital employed:
- First, interest rates on the international capital market remain low, resulting in a historically low rate of return on so-called risk-free investments.
- Second, the change in our target capital structure. Amid low interest rates and our high capital expenditures, we raised our financial leverage.
The target capital structure for 2013 is thus 60 percent equity and 40 percent debt.