Production

In 2017, production output was markedly higher than in the previous year. Production costs were 17.1 percent lower due to the deconsolidation of Siltronic, but were 3.0 percent higher on a comparable basis. Production increased particularly strongly at WACKER SILICONES, where manufacturing facilities ran at full capacity. Overall capacity utilization at the chemical divisions exceeded 80 percent. WACKER POLYSILICON once again sold higher volumes than a year earlier, despite the loss of four months of production at the Charleston site.

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Plant Utilization in 2017

 

%

 

Plant Utilization Rate

 

 

 

WACKER SILICONES

 

98

WACKER POLYMERS

 

86 – 87

WACKER POLYSILICON

 

100

Capital expenditures amounted to €326.8 million in the reporting year (2016: €338.1 million). Maintenance costs amounted to around €380 million.

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Key Start-Ups

 

Location

 

Projects

 

Year

 

 

 

 

 

Burghausen

 

Dispersion reactor

 

2017

Burghausen

 

Logistics expansion for vinyl acetate monomer (VAM)

 

2017

Brazil

 

Multifunctional facility for silicones

 

2017

Priorities in Productivity

The ongoing program helps us boost productivity along the entire supply chain. The most important goal is to continue reducing specific operating costs. In 2017, we worked on approximately 700 projects, some 500 of which concerned operations. The projects focused on improving raw-material yields and specific energy consumption. The WOS ACADEMY held 12 training courses at which over 100 employees were trained in new productivity methods, such as Six Sigma and LEAN.

Wacker Operating System (WOS)
The “Wacker Operating System” (WOS) program bundles, promotes and processes corporate projects for systematic process improvement. It is the basis for a groupwide improvement initiative by WACKER.