German President Steinmeier Visits WACKER Site at Nünchritz

Nünchritz, Nov 13, 2017

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier visited WACKER’s site at Nünchritz this evening. He was accompanied by his wife, Elke Büdenbender, and Stanislaw Tillich, Prime Minister of the Free State of Saxony. President Steinmeier was on an official, two-day visit to Saxony.

After welcoming Germany’s president, WACKER CEO Rudolf Staudigl and site manager Gerd Kunkel showed him around the ultramodern polysilicon production facilities there. Afterward, President Steinmeier talked to employees and trainees about topics such as work-life balance and the importance of young people learning technical skills. A further point of interest was WACKER’s vital economic influence in rural areas.

President Steinmeier was impressed by Nünchritz’s development over the last two decades. Founded as a chemical plant in 1900, the site was acquired by WACKER in 1998. The company has invested over €1.5 billion in making Nünchritz one of the world’s largest and most modern sites for silicon-based products. Today, Nünchritz manufactures a wide range of silicon-based products, such as silicones for electronics, automotive and many other applications, pyrogenic silicas used for example as a rheology-control additive in paints and adhesives, and polycrystalline silicon for solar cells. With a workforce of around 1,500, the site is Saxony’s largest chemical-industry employer.