Megatrend: Globalization

Evonik leverages on major global trends as a springboard for business and opening up promising new markets. Evonik has strong footprints in the major Asian markets, e.g. China, Japan, India, South Korea, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand, since early of the last century. By the end of 2009, Asia contributed 19 percent of the total sales to the Group, and China is in the leading position. Our chemical business in the region can trace its roots to nearly 80 years ago. Today, we have more than 4,000 employees at 20 companies and 16 production facilities in the region. Sales here totaled €820 million in 2008. As China is one of the major driving forces for global economy, therefore we aim to generate sales of €2 billion in mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan in the medium term. To reach this ambitious sales target, we have initiated the “Growth Path” project in the region. Within the framework of our initiative we are taking comprehensive measures to stimulate profitable growth, including business growth, improvement of site performance and strategic HR planning.

As a specialty chemicals producer, we focus on innovation and proximity to customers in the Greater China region as elsewhere. At the Mulit-User-Site-China located in the Shanghai Chemical Industry Park, Evonik operates a large integrated production complex for specialty polymers (methacrylates and polymethylmethacrylates/PMMA) with a total investment of around €250 million. This is currently Evonik’s largest investment project in China and the second largest ever undertaken in the Chemicals Business Area.