WACKER’s new production plant for vinyl acetate-ethylene copolymer (VAE) dispersions officially went on stream at the Ulsan site in South Korea. With the new reactor line’s additional 40,000 metric tons, dispersion capacity there increased to 90,000 metric tons per year.

WACKER presented innovations for the construction, packaging and adhesives sectors at the European Coatings Show (ECS) in Nuremberg. Presentations ranged from silicone resins and polymeric binders for paint and plaster applications all the way to cyclodextrins as environmentally compatible processing auxiliaries.

WACKER started operating a further production plant for vinyl acetate-ethylene copolymer (VAE) dispersions in Nanjing. With capacity rising by 60,000 metric tons, output doubled to 120,000 tons a year. The plant complex is the largest of its kind in China.

In Singapore, WACKER received Unilever’s “Partner to Win Award” for its ability to provide a demand-driven supply of silicone raw materials. According to the jury, WACKER helped to significantly reduce the cost of silicone emulsions for haircare products by expanding capacities and developing effective solutions at its site in India.

WACKER presented innovations for the silicone and plastics processing industries at K 2013, the 19th International Trade Fair for Plastics and Rubber, in Düsseldorf. ELASTOSIL^® Film – a thin film of silicone – is a world first. It can be used, for example, in trailblazing sensor technologies.

Jena-based Wacker Biotech, a subsidiary of Wacker Chemie AG, acquired a therapeutic proteins production site from BioNet Ventures GmbH in Halle, eastern Germany. This acquisition saw WACKER taking over the facilities and patent portfolio of Scil Proteins Production. The WACKER BIOSOLUTIONS division used the acquisition to strengthen its activities in the field of pharmaceutical proteins.

Siltronic took over a majority stake in its Siltronic Samsung Wafer Pte. Ltd. joint venture. Siltronic subscribed new shares in a capital increase, to hold 78 percent of the joint venture. The company was renamed Siltronic Silicon Wafer Pte. Ltd, in which Samsung retains a 22-percent stake.

WACKER received the Upper Bavarian government’s award for outstanding services to integration. The honor recognized WACKER’s sustained support of “Die Arche” (The Ark), a children’s charity in the Moosach district of Munich. One of the ways the company has supported this charity since 2007 is by making an annual donation of €100,000. The Ark provides assistance to children from socially disadvantaged families, many of whom are from abroad.

Wacker Chemie AG and the Chinese Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) reached an amicable agreement on the issue of polysilicon exports to China. WACKER undertook not to sell polysilicon produced at its European sites below a specific minimum price in China. MOFCOM, in turn, refrained from imposing anti-dumping and anti-subsidy tariffs on this material. The agreement came into effect on May 1, 2014.

WACKER invested about €20 million in production capacities for dispersible polymer powders at its Burghausen site. The Group began constructing a new spray dryer there with an annual capacity of 50,000 metric tons. The facility is one of the largest of its kind worldwide.

The WACKER Silicone Award went to Akira Sekiguchi, a professor of organic chemistry at the University of Tsukuba in Japan. The €10,000 award was conferred on August 4, 2014 during the 7th European Silicon Days in Berlin. In 2003, Sekiguchi had been the first to synthesize molecules with stable silicon-silicon triple bonds and to verify them by means of X-ray crystallography. These and numerous other studies have made Sekiguchi a pioneer in the field of organosilicon research.

Robert Bosch GmbH conferred its Preferred Supplier status on WACKER for elastomers and thermosetting plastics. The Stuttgart-based technology and service provider gave WACKER top marks in the categories of quality, logistics, innovation and strategic collaboration. As a Preferred Supplier, WACKER can now participate even more in the development of this customer’s new products and technologies. Bosch assigns its Preferred Supplier status annually to the best of its 4,000 suppliers in its subassemblies and materials groups.

Wacker Chemie AG celebrated its centennial on October 13. That was the day, in 1914, when Alexander Wacker entered the “Dr. Alexander Wacker Gesellschaft für elektrochemische Industrie, KG” in the Traunstein commercial register, thereby laying the foundations of the WACKER Group. With a background in business, Wacker then established in 1903 the “Consortium für elektrochemische Industrie,” which is WACKER’s present-day corporate research arm. That original seed would later grow into today’s Wacker Chemie AG. The company celebrated its centennial with special events and open-house days.

The Bavarian government presented WACKER with its Bavarian Energy Award in Nuremberg. The award cited the Group’s highly efficient polysilicon manufacturing operations. Using advanced, patented technology and process optimizations, WACKER had lowered its specific energy consumption for polysilicon production by 29 percent. Hyperpure polysilicon is the main raw material for making solar modules and, consequently, plays a vital role in generating solar power.