Wacker Chemie AG plans to further expand its silicone specialties business and is reorganizing its production operations in Europe. A new production site for silicones is to be built in Karlovy Vary in the Czech Republic. The main drivers of this expansion measure are megatrends such as electromobility and renewable energies which require silicones from WACKER. Production is expected to start at the end of 2025.
The production site is intended to complement WACKER’s existing integrated production sites in Germany – namely Burghausen and Nünchritz, as well as the site in Pilsen, which is specialized in the area of electromobility. “Karlovy Vary will be an important pillar for our silicone activities in Europe, especially when it comes to the production of customized silicone compounds. With this project, we will be creating important conditions for further optimizing our production processes and making us even more flexible within our integrated production system comprising four locations. Our customers stand to benefit from specific product solutions – reliable, highly efficient and top quality”, said WACKER Executive Board member Christian Kirsten.
“Our grades of silicone rubber are in demand in all key growth markets”, staed Kirsten. Kirsten added, “Customized silicone elastomers are especially needed where conventional materials cannot or can no longer meet the high and ever-increasing requirements. In order to be able to meet the growing demand for such solutions in the long term, we need to lay the groundwork for it now”.
The site will focus on the production of room-temperature-vulcanizing specialty silicones. Production is scheduled to start at the end of 2025. Later, high-temperature-vulcanizing silicone compounds will also be produced there. In total, WACKER plans to invest a sum in the low triple-digit million euro range. When fully operational, Karlovy Vary will be able to supply over 20,000 metric tons of custom-made silicones per year.
As per the press release, the raw materials required for production – polymers, fillers and additives – are to be delivered from Burghausen and mixed in Karlovy Vary to manufacture ready-to-use silicones, also referred to as compounds. “By bundling our production capacities for compounds in Karlovy Vary, we can utilize our fully continuous plants in Burghausen even better, further increase our efficiency and accelerate the planned automation of our processes”, emphasised Thomas Koini, President, WACKER SILICONES Business Division. Koini added, “In future, our site in Pilsen will focus on the growing market for silicone gels and thermally conductive silicones. Such products are in high demand in the electromobility sector in particular. This means that our existing plants will also benefit from the new production concept”.
