Asking more from chemicals Solvay

ASKING MORE FROM CHEMICALS

Created in 1863, Solvay is a global company driven by proud and committed chemists. With its historical anchorage in Europe, its products serve diversified markets worldwide, from consumer goods to energy, with one aim – to improve quality of life and customer performance. In Poland, Solvay Group has been present for 11 years and today employs over 280 staff in three production and administrative centres. Piotr Sadowski reports.

Solvay today is an international chemical group committed to sustainable development with a clear focus on innovation and operational excellence. The group offers a broad range of products that contribute to improving the quality of life and the performance of its customers in a wide range of markets. It is listed on the NYSE Euronext in Brussels and Paris.

As a group of companies, Solvay delivers innovative, sustainable and competitive solutions with a high added value, tailored to the needs and requirements of individual clients. By responding to the challenges of increasingly scarce resources, Solvay creates unique products for industries including aviation and motor; agriculture and food; construction; consumer goods and healthcare; electricity and electronics; energy and electronics; and many other industrial applications.

Strong in Poland

Solvay operates from three locations in Poland: In Gorzów Wielkopolski, where it produces mainly construction plastics based on polyamides PA6, PA66 and PA10; in Włocławek, manufacturing highly dispersible silica, where now a major new investment in a silica manufacturing facility is underway and due to be finished in the autumn of 2015; and a sales office in Warsaw, which handles the sales of the entire range of Solvay products, not only those manufactured in Poland.

Major investment

On 13 February 2013, Solvay announced it would invest €75 million to build a new, 85,000 ton per year Highly Dispersible Silica (HDS) plant in Włocławek. Combined with a further capacity expansion at its site in Qingdao in China, these two investments were aimed at increasing Solvay’s global HDS production capacity by an additional 30 per cent.

Located in central Poland, close to key energy distribution and the new WarsawGdańsk highway, the new plant, due to be completed by October 2015 at the latest, will offer logistical benefits to customers in eastern Europe and Russia. The site is a designated Special Economic Zone (SEZ) integrated within the industrial site of Anwil, a subsidiary of the Polish refining and energy company PKN Orlen. “We are committed to supporting our customers’ growth in eastern Europe, Russia and around the world. This new site will offer our most innovative products from a very reliable and competitive platform. We are committed to remaining ahead of the curve in terms of industry development in order to preserve our technological and market leadership,” said Tom Benner, president of Solvay Silica at the time of announcing the investment in February 2013.

Among other HDS products, the new plant will produce Zeosil® Premium, the latest generation of highly dispersible silica, used by tire manufacturers in the production of energy-saving tires. Zeosil® Premium is a uniquely engineered patented HDS which decreases fuel consumption by up to 7 per cent, while enhancing other tire performance properties. Solvay has been seeing a strong demand for further Silica innovation to improve tire performance. Tire labelling regulation has led to a four-fold increase in Zeosil® Premium adoption and, expecting this strong growth trend to continue, the group was particularly interested in expanding the production capacity in Włocławek.

Alongside the investment in Poland, Solvay also added production capacity to its Qingdao plant, which started up in 2010, elevating the capacity of the site to 112,000 tons per year. The Polish and Chinese investments followed volume expansions in France (2012), the US (2011), and a new plant in Qingdao, China (2010). Once the plant in Włocławek is com-

pleted and starts up in the autumn this year, Solvay’s worldwide highly dispersible annual silica production capacity will stand close to 500,000 tons, doubling from pre-2010 levels.

Ongoing production of polyamides

The Włocławek HDS plant is strategically very important for the group’s entire operations. In Poland, as previously indicated, Solvay also focuses on the production of specialist plastics – construction compounds – based on polyamides PA6, PA66 and PA10 for the needs of the global motor, electric and electronic industries, as well as for the production of consumer goods. Solvay Engineering Plastics Poland Ltd in Gorzów Wielkopolski is involved in the manufacturing of products for sales across Poland, central and eastern Europe, as well as the Middle East and Africa.

Strategy for progress

As a global Group, Solvay is driven by its mission to find answers and respond to the challenges of increasingly scarce resources, a growing population, climate change, and sustaining health and well-being. Its vision is to lead the way in reshaping the global chemical industry and developing a model of chemistry that will address these crucial issues whilst continuing to drive value creation and profitable growth. Over the coming years, through its operations in all markets, including the all-important Polish market, this Solvay vision will be realised by: imagining and producing increasingly innovative solutions; committed employees and multinational talents; simplifying and decentralising management structure; combining operational excellence and continuous improvement; expanding to fast-growing markets and clearly defining priorities. n

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