Key Events in 2017

In Burghausen, WACKER expanded its dispersions production capacity, increasing annual capacity to 60,000 metric tons. Investment spending for this amounted to some €25 million.

In an accelerated bookbuild, WACKER gave up its majority in Siltronic AG. In total, 6.3 million Siltronic shares were placed with institutional investors for €55.85 per share. WACKER still holds 30.8 percent of the shares in Siltronic after this transaction and thus remains the biggest individual shareholder in the company.

At the European Coatings Show in Nuremberg – the biggest of its kind in Europe – WACKER presented new polymeric binders and silicones, together with innovations for the construction, packaging and adhesives industries.

WACKER intensified its cooperation with innovative company founders by becoming involved in Germany’s HTGF III fund.

WACKER strengthened its presence in highgrowth Asia: in Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, a new technical competence center for construction and adhesive applications opened its doors.

WACKER started up a new silicones R&D center in the USA, with the aim of pushing the development of new products in North America. The research and analytical laboratories are located in the university town of Ann Arbor in Michigan.

WACKER published its new sustainability report for 2015 and 2016. At our biggest production site in Burghausen, emissions, consumption and energy input have been reduced by 41 percent in the last ten years.

In São Paulo, WACKER joined customers in celebrating the 40th anniversary of its South American headquarters in Brazil. At the Jandira site near São Paulo, WACKER built a multifunctional facility for manufacturing antifoam agents and functional silicone fluids, which is already on stream.

At the US production site in Charleston, a technical defect led to the escape of hydrogen and an explosion, which damaged pipelines and a building. Production has shut down until the damage has been investigated and repair work completed.

WACKER presented the Alexander Wacker Innovation Award to a research team for developing high-temperature silicone fluids. The product, HELISOL^®, can be heated up to 425°C and its viscosity remains low even at –40°C. In solar thermal power plants, it achieves efficiencies that are impossible with conventional heat-transfer media.

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier visited WACKER’s Nünchritz production site during his three-day tour of the Free State of Saxony. Accompanied by Minister President Stanislaw Tillich, he learned about WACKER’s role as an economic player in the region, as well as about technical recruiting, training, and maintaining a work-life balance.

Ground-breaking in Ulsan, South Korea: WACKER is expanding its existing production facilities for dispersions and dispersible polymer powders. We are constructing a new spray dryer for dispersible polymer powders with a capacity of 80,000 metric tons, as well as a further reactor for dispersions based on vinyl acetate-ethylene copolymer (VAE). About €60 million is being spent on this project and production will start in the first quarter of 2019.