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Triangular relationships

Former state-owned combines of Central Germany have developed into modern chemical parks
Triangular relationships

Chemical sites in Saxony-Anhalt, Saxony and Thuringia had to cope with enormous bloodletting after the fall of communism. Employee numbers dropped from 180,000 to approximately 30,000. Following profound site restructuring and upgrading staff figures are on the increase again – mainly due to newly established enterprises. cav accompanied the Marketing Company for Central German chemical sites CeChemNet on visits to Bitterfeld, Leuna, Schkopau, Schwarzheide and Zeitz.

Rusty pipe bridges, leaky pipelines, foul-smelling soils, dilapidated buildings: This was how chemical sites in Central Germany presented themselves after the fall of communism. Today – some 16 years and 16.6 billion euro later – chemical parks are appearing in markedly better light. Environmental cleanups have borne fruit: There is no more odour nuisance, leakage and hardly any ruins. Former state-owned combines have been revamped into modern industrial sites with spacious, renatured open spaces that even pert field hares have come to like.

Chemical sites in the Central German chemical triangle, supported by the State of Saxony-Anhalt, established CeChemNet – their own network to provide assistance to chemical parks in their efforts to siting new enterprises. After all, there are still approximately 500 hectares of fully developed land available for construction and business development. Collaboration between politics, authorities and chemical sites runs smoothly. About 650 million euro will be invested in chemical parks in Saxony-Anhalt in the next two years alone. The planned 30 new companies will create some 1,200 new jobs. Individual chemical parks, however, have their unique approaches to siting new enterprises. Their organization and character – open or self-contained park – impact their business location strategies.
A chlorious history
The Bitterfeld region boasts one of the oldest chemical sites in Europe. Large-scale chemical production commenced there in 1893. In 2001 ChemiePark Bitterfeld Wolfen GmbH was privatised to Preiss-Daimler Group, i.e. a very committed medium-sized company assumed responsibility for developing the location. Today, chemical park Bitterfeld-Wolfen comprises a total area of about 1,200 ha, with about 200 ha being still available for new sitings. 360 companies with about 11,000 employees are presently operating in Bitterfeld-Wolfen. About 3.5 billion euro have been invested at the chemical site to date by enterprises from Japan, America, Australia, Belgium and other countries.
The industrial profile of this chemical park is characterised by chlorine, phosphor, colorant, pharmaceuticals, quartz glass, fine and high-tech chemical industries and metallurgy. Q-Cells AG has made the region into one of the foremost solar technology sites in Europe. The chemical park offers optimum conditions to enterprises since they can concentrate on their core businesses and purchase all infrastructural and other services according to their demands and at their discretion. Infrastructure of the chemical site has been completely upgraded at a CapEx of 230 million euro. A WWTP on site ensures cheap disposal of all effluents.
Chemical activities on site are marked by comprehensive product integration. More than 28 km of pipe bridges are conveying different utilities safely and at low cost to manufacturing companies. Production of synthetic quartz glass is but one example of environmentally sound product integration. Feedstocks are carried in a closed circuit system, by combining quartz glass factory and electrolysis. Saline solution, a by-product, is re-used as raw material in electrolysis where, inter alia, hydrogen is generated which, in turn, is an important energy for quartz glass synthesis.
“1,280 new jobs have been created at Bitterfeld-Wolfen since 2001,“ said Matthias Gabriel, managing director of P-D ChemiePark Bitterfeld Wolfen GmbH. “Currently we are noticing an intensified demand. We are in negotiations with 21 companies that are set to invest in ChemiePark. Moreover, 18 already established firms are planning extensions and have already reserved land plots. This means, we have 39 companies that will create over 1,000 new jobs in the near future.”
Mister Big among East German chemical parks
InfraLeuna GmbH started its business activities on 1 January 1996. InfraLeuna and its associated companies own and operate all infrastructure facilities at Leuna chemical site. Basic tasks are supply of utilities (power, water, steam) and infrastructure services (fire brigade, site security, property) and development of chemical site Leuna (marketing of land for business establishment).
On 31 August 2006, the site celebrated its 90th and InfraLeuna its 10th anniversary. MD Andreas Hiltermann invited some 400 guests, including as speakers Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Böhmer, Minister President of Saxony-Anhalt, Wolfgang Tiefensee, Federal Minister of Transport, Building and Urban Development, and Hubertus Schmoldt, Chairman of the Mining, Chemistry and Energy Union.
Following enormous restructuring of the former Leuna Combine, one of the largest, undivided and self-contained chemical sites in Germany has developed to provide work for about 9,000 people on 13 km2. “InfraLeuna is the backbone of Leuna,” Tiefensee said. “We have achieved incredibly much but much work has still to be done. What counts is that the framework conditions are supportive.” These conditions include primarily further investments into infrastructure, fast-track planning permissions and new funding instruments. Tiefensee emphasised that the level of awareness of the region had to be improved worldwide to attract new investments.
InfraLeuna can look back on ten successful years, especially as a site developer. New investors could be won for Leuna by modern site management, marketing and assistance in siting. A hygienic paper plant of Italian Kartogroup, for example, was founded in 2005. Leuna Carboxylation Plant GmbH was the first direct Israeli investment in Saxony-Anhalt. Growth on this chemical site will continue. Quinn Group from Northern Ireland is building a feedstock production plant for light-transmitting and robust plastics at a cost of approx. 150 million euro and thus creates 100 new jobs. Linde AG will invest another 22 million euro and erect a hydrogen liquefaction plant at Leuna by 2007. All in all, about 5.5 billion euro have been invested since 1990.
Corporate train operator
Today the BASF site in Schwarzheide is a modern competence centre of chemical and synthetic materials. About 2,000 staff are manufacturing polyurethane base products and systems, foamed and engineering plastics. Pesticides, water-based lacquers, PU dispersions and Laromer brands complete the product range. More than 100 business siting projects were initiated since BASF acquired the site in 1990. 13 projects have been completed and the newly established companies use BASF products as feedstocks, supply technical gases and compressed air to site or complement its performance portfolio as top-quality chemical logistic centre. Thus, the firms on site continue the integration concept of the biggest chemicals company worldwide: Product and energy flows are efficiently arranged, infrastructure and logistics shared, know-how intelligently networked, supply and disposal standardized.
The location has undergone profound changes over the past years. About 100 ha free and completely developed areas for new siting projects were created restructuring. Production plants are state-of-the-art. BASF investments become evident: Since 1990 1.4 billion euro were invested into modernization and building of new plants and infrastructures at the core works area and the neighbouring Processing and Industrial Centre (VIZ).
Railway transport has played a key role in site development. Chemicals company BASF formed its own railway company in 1996 and now carries out a continuous exchange of goods between Rotterdam, Ludwigshafen and Schwarzheide. The transport is up for extension to the East.
A string of pearls along the motorway
The Central German sites of Dow are offering excellent conditions for production, engineering and R&D. Dow employs a total of 2,300 staff in Schkopau, Leuna and Teutschenthal (Saxony-Anhalt) and Böhlen (Saxony) after a profound revamping of the whole infrastructure like at all chemical sites in Central Germany. The four Dow sites are interconnected by a pipeline network and form a highly integrated unit: The production sites are provided with feedstock from Rostock (Baltic Sea) and Stade (North Sea). A large variety of synthetic materials and rubber is being produced based on petro- and chlorine chemistry.
With its ValuePark in Schkopau Dow has embarked on a different road than its neighbours in Leuna. The company offers industrial spaces, chemistry-typical products and services to synthetic materials processing companies, service providers and logistics companies that seek a mutually beneficial business partnership.
Small but neat
Traditional chemical and industrial park Zeitz, lead-managed by ZSG Zeitzer Stand-ortgesellschaft mbH, has proven an internationally attractive and economically successful location for ten years. The former 230 ha hydrogenation works is the smallest chemical park in the region. The site already teetered on the brink of collapse. After the political changes in 1992 a crude oil refinery was built in Leuna – and Zeitz was to be discontinued. The 4,100 employees disassembled the plants in subsequent years. Costs of complete dismantling and ecological site cleanup amounted to about 500 million euro, while 100 million euro have been invested into a completely new infrastructure. ZSG was established in 1996 and assumed location marketing of the 230 ha industrial estate.
In order to survive this “mini park” has focused – beside traditional chemistry – on utilization of domestic resources, especially renewable raw materials and the fossil fuel lignite. A starch factory will be built in the near future for production of non-food starch from wheat for industrial applications with a capacity of 100 kt/a on an area of 11 ha at a CapEx of 49 million euro to create 93 jobs. Also a bio-ethanol plant will be built to utilize starch factory wastes.
A modern lignite gasification plant to generate synthesis gas will be built on site by 2009, a necessary measure since the adjacent power plant that supplies steam and power to the site will be disconnected from network in 2012. Simultaneously, a 120 MW combined gas and steam turbine station (GuD) for heat supply to site, power generating and feeding into the supra-regional network will be built for 180 million euro by three companies in the next years.
ChemiePark Bitterfeld-Wolfen cpp 402
InfraLeuna cpp 403
BASF Schwarzheide cpp 404
ValuePark Dow Olefinverbund cpp 405
ZSG Zeitzer Standortgesellschaft cpp 406

CeChemnet
BASF Schwarzheide
Dow ValuePark
Industriepark Zeitz
InfraLeuna
ChemiePark Bitterfeld-Wolfen
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