WACKER’s Americas Region Expansion Strategy Aligned with Global Growth, Demand for Silicones

Wacker Chemical Corporation, part of the global chemical group Wacker Chemie AG, is planning a number of concurrent expansion projects to support regional growth and demand for silicones and HDK pyrogenic silica. Triple digit million dollar investments in North America align with WACKER’s overall expansion strategy to add capacity in Europe and in Asia.

“WACKER is a leading silicone solutions provider, offering customers a reliable supply of materials, consistent quality, technical and customer support services and innovative technology,” said Dr. Ian Moore, Wacker Chemical Corporation Vice President Silicones. “WACKER’s expansion strategy is designed to support continued growth in demand for silicone products, further increase customer satisfaction, and accelerate product development.”

Moore, who joined WACKER in July 2017, and has over 30 years of global operations and commercial experience in the silicones industry, explained that growth in silicone’s demand is seen across all market segments, with stronger growth coming from the automotive and transportation, health care, and personal care industries. In addition to capacity expansion, silicone elastomers, fluids, emulsions, and HDKpyrogenic silica demand necessitates that WACKER also employ significant resources to support our customers’ needs in growing their businesses.

“WACKER’s current investment strategy in infrastructure and capacity expansion in the America’s region will involve several coordinated projects,” Moore said.  “Already looking at this past summer, we opened the Silicones R&D Center located in Ann Arbor, Mich. Having this 10,000-square-foot research and development center situated in the Michigan Innovation Headquarters facility complements WACKER’s business model of being close to our customers and close to serving regional market trends. Currently under construction and scheduled to open in mid-2019 is our HDK plant in Charleston, Tenn. When open, the plant will provide our customers a regionally-sourced supply of pyrogenic silica, having an annual capacity of some 13,000 metric tons. WACKER has earmarked some $150 million for this investment.”

Complementing these projects, WACKER sites which manufacture silicone elastomers, fluids and emulsions, are planning to significantly expand production capacity through infrastructure development and investments in additional equipment. Dr. Moore said that engineering planning for a number of projects is already underway. These plans include the addition of capacities for elastomers, intermediate production processes and further investment in antifoam compounds and silicone emulsion production.

“WACKER’s Silicones division in 2016 had €2.0 billion in global sales and ranks as the world’s number two supplier,” Moore said. “In contrast, in 2014 silicones sales were €1.73 billion, so clearly the division is poised for growth. Based upon the company’s 2017 Q1 and then its Q2 financial report, the company already revised upward its expectation for WACKER SILICONES, the main reason being continued strong volume growth and demand for silicone products. With the publishing of the Q3 report, WACKER reported silicones volume growth was up 11 percent for the quarter, generating sales of €559.3 million vs. €503.1 million Q3 2016.”