AkzoNobel is part of a profitable value chain at the chemical park
Chemical and competence network at the Bitterfeld-Wolfen site
Saxony-Anhalt's Prime Minister Dr. Reiner Haseloff is in the Netherlands for political and economic discussions from 19 May to 22 May 2015. For the presentation of the German tourist destination Saxony-Anhalt as well as for attracting and support of foreign investors the Investment and Marketing Corporation Saxony-Anhalt accompanied the journey. One of the stations is the headquarters of the Dutch company Akzo Nobel, which has successfully invested in Saxony-Anhalt. The Chemical Park Bitterfeld-Wolfen offers ideal conditions for its business.
“Chlorine should be produced where it is used”, says Stefan Kauerauf, plant manager of the Dutch AkzoNobel Group at the chemical park known as Chemical Park of Bitterfeld-Wolfen in the south of the German federal state of Saxony-Anhalt. The company with 70 employees operates a chlor-alkali electrolysis plant based on the membrane process as well as plants for production of hydrogen chloride, hydrochloric acid and sodium hypochlorite. The plant is not only located in the middle of important consumers of chlorine, sodium hydroxide and hydrogen, but it also recovers starting materials for its own production from them. The more than 18-kilometre long pipeline bridge network in the industrial area creates a chemical network that mostly frees associated companies from complex logistical activities and increases their efficiency. “For us, the chemical park with its excellent infrastructure is something like the package tour with all-round carefree package in the tourism industry”, says Kauerauf. This expertise is a tradition: Saxony-Anhalt is the birthplace of the chemical park concept and is today among the most important chemical centres in Europe with a total of five chemical industrial parks.
The Dutch investor AkzoNobel was attracted to the Bitterfeld-Wolfen site by what already attracted pioneers of chlorine chemistry as they put the first industrial chlorine electrolysis plant into operation in 1894: there were a lot of free areas, manpower as well as the raw material salt and the energy source brown coal. When the Dutch company initially took over Bitterfelder Chlor-Alkali GmbH as ECI Elektro-Chemie GmbH Ibbenbüren in a joint venture with Preussag AG in 1997, there were already many redeveloped areas in the chemical park, including a developed network of roads, rails and pipelines, qualified specialists, a pipeline which transported sodium chloride from the city of Bernburg to the chemical park, and a branched pipeline totalling about 150 kilometres in length through which Linde AG sent hydrogen to industrial customers in the region.
In the course of profiling the Preussag conglomerate into the TUI tourism group, in 2002 the Dutch group took over its share in the joint venture and reconfigured the company as AkzoNobel Industrial Chemicals GmbH. “We are part of a value-added chain which serves attractive market segments with innovative products”, emphasises Stefan Kauerauf. For example, AkzoNobel supplies Evonik Industries with hydrogen chloride in the chemical network. Evonik requires the basic material for the production of silicon tetrachloride, which is in turn supplied to Heraeus by means of a pipeline. The German technology group’s Bitterfeld plant uses this to produce high-purity fused silica for optical fibres. In turn, by-products are returned to AkzoNobel in a completely self-contained cycle of chlorine materials.
Follow with a click, how Akzo nobel grew that successfull and how it sees the future of energy.
Contact:
Investment and Marketing Corporation Saxony-Anhalt
The economic development agency of the German federal state of Saxony-Anhalt
Tanja Rüdinger
Project Manager International Press & PR
Tel.: 49 391 5689976
Fax: 49 391 5689950
E-Mail: tanja.ruedinger@img-sachsen-anhalt
Internet: www.invest-in-saxony-anhalt.com
Investment and Marketing Corporation Saxony-Anhalt (IMG)
IMG is the economic development agency of the German federal state Saxony-Anhalt. IMG staff provides all services related to new business sites. In addition, we are marketing Saxony-Anhalt both nationally and internationally and developing tourism concepts.
We search our site and property database with 250 industrial and trade estates for a location tailored to your needs. We provide competent and individual advice for greenfield and brownfield sites, office properties or production halls. First site information provided within 24 hours. Arrangement of site visits take place following your preliminary selection. We can advise you on public grant programmes for investments, identify potential partners and arrange meetings with them. We identify a point of contact for you with the public authorities, coordinate and carry out negotiations for you on a federal state, state district and municipal level as well as with official bodies and institutions. We were assigned by the Ministry for Science and Economic Affairs of Saxony-Anhalt to guide you as a one-stop agency through the investment process.
Our services are free of charge for you!
Tags:
