Key Events 2010 – 2012

April 6, 2010
New Training Facilities

The WACKER ACADEMY grows, with new training centers opening in São Paulo (Brazil) and Singapore. Such centers offer an ideal platform for exchanging expertise with local customers and partners. The focus is on industry-specific courses, covering not only polymer chemistry, but also silicone applications.
April 21, 2010
Start-Up of Polysilicon Facilities

Burghausen sees additional polycrystalline-silicon facilities come on stream. Overall, WACKER has invested about €500 million in this expansion stage, which creates some 200 new jobs. The new facilities manufacture material for the solar industry and semiconductor market.
June 7, 2010
Acquisition of Silicon-Metal Plant

WACKER acquires a silicon-metal plant in Holla from Norway’s FESIL Group. This strategic acquisition means WACKER can cover its long-term silicon-metal needs. The Holla plant makes WACKER more independent of raw-material price fluctuations and increases supply security.
November 18, 2010
Opening of Largest Silicone Site

At Zhangjiagang, WACKER and Dow Corning open China’s largest integrated silicone site. From this location, both companies can now meet the soaring demand for silicones in China, and Asia as a whole. The joint investments for this project total US$1.8 billion.
December 9, 2010
New Polysilicon Site

WACKER starts constructing a new, fully integrated polysilicon site in the US State of Tennessee. The production complex, with an annual capacity of 20,000 metric tons, is expected to come on stream in 2015. At about US$2 billion, this new site is WACKER’s single largest investment ever.
June 9, 2011
Best Innovator Award

WACKER receives Germany’s Best Innovator Award in the Chemical category for its sustainable innovation management. A.T. Kearney and German business weekly “WirtschaftsWoche” organized the competition, in which more than 100 companies participated.
September 24, 2011
Open House

WACKER holds an “open house” to commemorate the International Year of Chemistry in 2011. At the Burghausen, Freiberg and Cologne sites, visitors spend a day looking behind the scenes. Over 20,000 take the opportunity to attend plant tours, experiment demonstrations and product presentations.
October 10, 2011
Polysilicon Production at Nünchritz

The production of hyperpure polysilicon begins at Nünchritz. WACKER invested some €900 million in the facilities, which create more than 500 new jobs. The production complex utilizes highly integrated material cycles. Byproducts are reprocessed and then used as basic materials for creating further value.
October 19, 2011
Pyrogenic Silica Plant

WACKER and Dow Corning Corporation inaugurate the second expansion stage of their joint pyrogenic silica plant at Zhangjiagang, China. This plant, together with a siloxane plant, forms the heart of the integrated silicone production site developed by WACKER and Dow Corning.
December 8, 2011
Closure of Site in Japan

The Siltronic division streamlines its 200 mm wafer capacities and closes its production site at Hikari (Japan) during 2012. Hikari’s production volumes are transferred to Siltronic’s 200 mm wafer plants in Singapore and Portland (Oregon, USA). The closure of Hikari, which has some 500 employees, is effected in as socially responsible a manner as possible. Siltronic maintains both its local sales force and engineering support unit in Japan.
March 5, 2012
Expansion of Nanjing Site

WACKER invests around €40 million in two new production facilities at Nanjing. A new reactor with an annual output of 60,000 metric tons is added to the existing facilities for vinyl acetate-ethylene copolymer (VAE) dispersions. Work starts on building a new plant for polyvinyl acetate (PVAc) solid resins, with an annual capacity of 20,000 metric tons. It is expected to come on stream in late 2013.
July 12, 2012
Innovation Award

Three WACKER researchers receive the Alexander Wacker Innovation Award for dispersions based on vinyl acetate-ethylene copolymers. Used as coatings, these novel dispersions ensure that the print on cardboard packaging, for example, is particularly durable and vividly colored. They also offer cost advantages compared with acrylate-based products.
July 19, 2012
500 Million Cartridges Produced

WACKER’s Nünchritz site in Saxony, eastern Germany, has produced half a billion cartridges filled with adhesives and sealants since starting production there in 1998. Most customer orders for adhesives and sealants produced at the site are filled into cartridges bearing the customer’s own labels, and delivered ready for sale.
September 24, 2012
Production Capacities Doubled

At Ulsan in South Korea, WACKER builds a plant for vinyl acetate-ethylene copolymer (VAE) dispersions with an annual capacity of 40,000 metric tons, nearly doubling its capacity for VAE dispersions there. Officially coming on stream on February 6, 2013, the production complex is one of the biggest of its kind in South Korea.
December 14, 2012
New Chinese Headquarters

WACKER opens its new company headquarters for the Greater China region (mainland China and Taiwan). The Shanghai Center, which occupies some 10,000 square meters, features offices and laboratories for R&D and applications technology. Operations range from construction applications, paints and coatings to products for the automotive, cosmetics and textile sectors.