Evonik Concentrates Business in Germany

Evonik plans to close two smaller sites in Germany by next year. At the company’s Hamburg site, around 50 employees currently supply products for the cosmetics and personal care industry. In Bitterfeld, around 40 employees produce chlorosilanes. These businesses will continue, concentrated mainly at larger German sites. In the coming months, Evonik and employee representatives will negotiate socially acceptable solutions for the employees affected.

“We have strong businesses that successfully meet our customers’ needs for high-quality products,” says Claus Rettig, interim Chairman of the Executive Board of Evonik. “At the same time, our structures when it comes to production, administration, and laboratories are too fragmented in some areas. This leads to unnecessarily high costs and weakens our competitiveness. That’s why we also need to bundle our locations and concentrate our structures in a targeted manner in order to work more efficiently, drive innovations forward more quickly, and thus strengthen our competitiveness.”

The Hamburg site is to be closed by the middle of next year. The activities for cosmetics and personal care products will be bundled together with the technological know-how at Evonik’s larger site Essen-Goldschmidtstrasse, thus continuing the business. Essen is already a major site of the Care Solutions business line, to which the Hamburg site also belongs. Like the entire chemicals industry, this business is also suffering from weak global demand and persistent pressure on profit margins in international competition.

“We are aware that this decision represents a drastic change for the employees at the Hamburg site,” says Maximilian Morin, who is responsible for the Care Solutions business line. “The decision was made after intensive evaluations of various options and represents the best solution for the successful development of the business.”

Bitterfeld is scheduled to close at the end of April 2027. The decision follows persistently challenging market conditions for high-purity silicon tetrachloride, including increasing supply from Asia and competitive pressure. At the same time, plant utilization has remained at a lower level for an extended period which does not support economically viable operations. Various options including alternative operating concepts, a reduction of capacities, mothballing, and scenarios to sell the site were examined. None of them promised a sustainable economic perspective in the long term.

“This decision was not easy for us. We are aware of the importance of the site for our employees and for the region. At the same time, we have the responsibility to ensure the long-term competitiveness of our business,” says Emmanuel Auer, head of the Smart Effects business line, which the chlorosilane business is part of. Going forward, Evonik ensures the supply of customers primarily through deliveries from its Rheinfelden site in southern Germany.

Together with employee representatives in Hamburg and Bitterfeld, the next steps will now be discussed. “For us, dealing with our colleagues at Evonik in a responsible way is our top priority, even when difficult decisions have to be taken,” says Hussin EL Moussaoui, Chairman of the General Works Council. “That’s why it is important for us to communicate the necessary changes transparently at an early stage. This creates clarity and gives us the necessary time to work together toward viable and socially acceptable solutions for all affected.