Production

In 2018, production output was markedly higher than the year before, whereas production costs were down 3.1 percent. Overall capacity utilization at the chemical divisions was roughly 90 percent. At WACKER POLYSILICON, we sold lower quantities than a year earlier, one reason being the shutdown at Charleston. The Charleston site resumed production in May 2018.

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Plant Utilization in 2018

 

%

 

Plant Utilization Rate

 

 

 

WACKER SILICONES

 

96

WACKER POLYMERS

 

89

WACKER POLYSILICON

 

100

Capital expenditures for 2018 amounted to €460.9 million (2017: €326.8 million). Maintenance costs totaled around €480 million.

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Key Start-Ups

 

Location

 

Projects

 

Year

 

 

 

 

 

Adrian, Michigan, USA

 

Discontinuous emulsion plant

 

2018

Burghausen

 

Production facility for non-postcuring liquid silicone rubbers

 

2018

León, Spain

 

Cysteine plant

 

2018

Jincheon, South Korea

 

New production facility for RTV silicone compounds

 

2018

Nanjing, China

 

Capacity extension for VAE dispersions

 

2018

Priorities of Productivity Program

The ongoing program helps us boost productivity along the entire value chain. The most important goal is to continue reducing specific operating costs each year. In 2018, we worked on approximately 600 projects, some 400 of which concerned operations. The projects focused on improving raw-material yields and specific energy consumption. The WOS ACADEMY held 12 courses to train some 100 employees in the use of 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.

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