Wacker plans silicone specialities plant

Wacker Chemie is to invest an amount in the “low triple-digit million euro range” on a new, 20,000 tonnes/year silicones facility at Karlovy Vary in the Czech Republic. Development work on the site is set to begin shortly, with construction starting in Q2, subject to approval by the authorities. It is due onstream at the start of 2025 and will create up to 20 jobs.

The new site will mainly make speciality room-temperature-vulcanising silicones at first, with high-temperature-vulcanising silicone compounds production coming later. The polymers, fillers and additives will be delivered from the main site in Burghausen to be mixed into compounds at Karlovy Vary.

The site is intended to complement existing integrated sites at Burghausen and Nünchritz, Germany, and Pilsen in the Czech Republic, which is specialised in electromobility applications and will focus on silicone gels and thermally conductive silicones. “With this project, we will be creating important conditions for further optimising our production processes and making us even more flexible” claimed executive board member Christian Kirsten.