WACKER SILICONES

In 2013, we refined our strategy at WACKER SILICONES. To spur silicone business in Asia, WACKER is expanding its operations and marketing presence there. Five new teams have been active in the region since March 2013. They are geared to providing customer support locally from WACKER sites in Singapore, Mumbai (India), Jincheon (South Korea) and Shanghai (China). The regional teams are supported by business- and product-development experts, who are active globally. These experts coordinate cross-regional marketing strategies and product portfolios. Additionally, they are responsible for reinforcing local knowledge transfer and expertise growth. New products are expected to account for an increasing share of sales in the coming years. So, we have set our research priorities accordingly and realigned our innovation portfolio. We intend to add even more value while maintaining current raw-material consumption levels. Strong utilization of our production capacity is an important factor in keeping our specific production costs as low as possible. We have established differentiated marketing strategies for selling standard and specialty products.

WACKER POLYMERS

WACKER POLYMERS continues to firmly pursue its strategy of profitable growth in dispersions and dispersible polymer powders. The key is to develop regional production capacities for dispersions and polymer powders so that local and regional customer demand can be met both promptly and cost-effectively. To this end, it is important to develop product solutions that are specifically tailored to local application requirements. WACKER systematically continued this approach in 2013. In Asia, we started up additional production capacities in Nanjing (China) and Ulsan (South Korea). An important aspect of our strategy is to develop new applications for our products, including improving their properties to replace other products.

WACKER BIOSOLUTIONS

WACKER BIOSOLUTIONS continues to concentrate on the pharmaceutical, agrochemical and food industries. We increasingly draw on chemical-biotech synergies to provide our customers with complete solutions for their specific market needs. The success of our products in the industries we serve is based on a strong customer focus. Consequently, the division’s organizational structure is firmly oriented to customers and markets. WACKER BIOSOLUTIONS will focus even more on innovation to achieve future growth in sales. The acquisition of Scil Proteins Production in 2014 is a step toward strengthening WACKER BIOSOLUTIONS’ business in pharmaceutical proteins.

WACKER POLYSILICON

WACKER POLYSILICON’s strategic aims are to maintain its quality and cost leadership as a hyperpure-polysilicon manufacturer, and to expand its production capacities in line with market growth. In a competitive environment, the division’s cost position is a key success factor. For this reason, our focus remains on reducing costs through productivity improvements and on optimizing our supplier base.

SILTRONIC

At Siltronic, there are four coordinated strategic priorities. By concentrating on lead sites, we are enhancing capacity utilization and cost structures. With regard to individual wafer diameters, our focus is on 300 mm silicon wafers in Asia, where growth is strongest. One ongoing strategic task is to implement productivity, cost-saving and flexibility initiatives to improve production processes and workflows. Investments in product developments are aimed at fulfilling the latest design-rule specifications and implementing quality-enhancing measures. Investments are lower than the amount of depreciation. Siltronic is no longer working on 450 mm technology.