Planning Cycle

Strategic planning determines how we can meet value-related and corporate goals. First, our divisions identify their market and competitive positions, and their value-related strength. We then use these results to formulate recommendations regarding strategic positioning and planned steps. All of this is supplemented by innovation and CapEx projects, and approved by the Strategy Conference.

Orders

The terms for orders placed with WACKER vary from division to division. Most orders received by WACKER SILICONES are short term, though a small number are long term. At WACKER POLYMERS, business is based on contracts and framework agreements with terms of up to one year in some cases. At WACKER POLYSILICON, we conclude short- and long-term contracts. A proportion of incoming orders are short-term ones, with prices based on market benchmarks. Due to varying order-placement procedures at the Group, order-level reporting is not very meaningful and hence does not serve as an indicator in our monthly reports.

Strategic and Operational Planning

Operational planning in the second half of the year addresses strategic-planning decisions with a five-year timeline. The Executive and Supervisory Boards jointly approve the annual plan, which then forms the basis for determining basic forecasts for the current year in early February. We monitor whether we are meeting our forecasts by means of monthly comparisons of planned and actual figures.