Evonik to close two sites

Evonik has announced plans to close two of its smaller sites in Germany. One at Hamburg, employing about 50 and making cosmetics and personal care ingredients, will close by mid-2027; another at Bitterfeld, employing around 40 and producing chlorosilanes, will close in April 2027.

“Our structures when it comes to production, administration and laboratories are too fragmented in some areas,” said Claus Rettig (pictured), who was named interim CEO in August after Christian Kullmann was taken ill. “This leads to unnecessarily high costs and weakens our competitiveness.”

The activities of the Hamburg site will be bundled together with the technological know-how at Essen-Goldschmidtstrasse, which is already a major site of the Care Solutions business line. Care Solutions is suffering from weak global demand and persistent pressure on profit margins in international competition, the company said.

The descision to close Bitterfeld came in the wake of “persistently challenging market conditions for high-purity silicon tetrachloride, including increasing supply from Asia and competitive pressure”. Meanwhile plant utilisation has remained low. Evonik looked at other options including reducing capacity, mothballing and a sale but decided that none “promised a sustainable economic perspective in the long term”.