Divestitures

WACKER did not divest any business fields or product business in 2013.

Investments

Investments were more than halved compared with 2012. In 2013, they totaled € 503.7 million (2012: € 1.1 billion), a sign that WACKER has largely completed, or extended the timeline for, its capital-intensive large-scale investments in new upstream product facilities.

WACKER’s investing activities remained centered on the construction of the new polysilicon site at Charleston, Tennessee (USA). At some € 250 million, this project accounted for approximately half of all investments in 2013. Construction there continued as planned throughout 2013 and is set for completion in the second half of 2015.

Investing activity in 2013 additionally focused on production-capacity expansion in Asia and the USA. At Ulsan (South Korea), WACKER officially opened a new production facility for vinyl acetate-ethylene copolymer dispersions with an annual capacity of 40,000 metric tons. The existing dispersions facilities at the polymer site in Nanjing (China) were enlarged by a new reactor with an annual output of 60,000 metric tons. Nanjing also saw the completion of a new plant for polyvinyl acetate solid resins. It has an annual capacity of 20,000 metric tons. In the USA, the polymers site at Calvert City also expanded, adding 30,000 metric tons of dispersions capacity per year. In 2013, these three projects involved a total of € 25.1 million in additions to property, plant and equipment.