Evonik to permanently shut down two chemical plants in Germany next year

According to the plan, the Bitterfeld plant will officially shut down at the end of April 2027 and withdraw from the production of high-purity silicon tetrachloride.

The plant currently has about 40 employees, and its core items are chlorosilane series, among which high-purity silicon tetrachloride is an crucial category. Evonik explained in its official announcement that the core reason to the shutdown decision is the持续 weakening of the high-purity silicon tetrachloride market: new production capacity in Asia has been continuously put into operation, and sector competition has have become increasingly fierce; superimposed on the prolonged low operating rate of the plant's equipment, it is difficult to achieve economic operation.

The company previously evaluated multiple alternative plans such as production reduction, equipment封存, and plant sale, however none of them could guarantee prolonged sustainable profitability, and finally decided on the shutdown plan. After the Bitterfeld plant is shut down, Evonik will rely on the Rheinfelden plant in southern Germany to continue to ensure product supply to customers.

The other plant to be shut down is the Hamburg plant, which is planned to stop production in mid-2027.

The Hamburg plant currently has about 50 employees and mainly produces makeup and personal care raw materials. After the plant is shut down, relevant business and technical resources will be integrated and relocated to Evonik's Essen-Goldschmidtstraße plant, which is itself a core production base to Evonik's care solutions business. Evonik stated that the personal care raw material business is under持续 pressure on profit margins due to the decline in global demand and intensified international market competition, which is also a common operational difficulty faced by the current chemical sector.

Claus Rettig, interim CEO of Evonik, said that the production, administrative and laboratory layouts of some of the company's business segments are too scattered, bringing unnecessary high costs and weakening the company's market competitiveness.

This production capacity adjustment aims to integrate production bases, concentrate resource allocation, enhance operational efficiency and accelerate technological innovation. Hussin EL Moussaoui, chairman of Evonik's overall employee committee, mentioned that the company will conduct consultations with employee representatives to develop resettlement plans that take into account social responsibilities to employees affected by this adjustment.

The withdrawal of Evonik's Bitterfeld plant from the high-purity silicon tetrachloride track will also reshape the global supply pattern of this category.

High-purity silicon tetrachloride is a key upstream raw material to optical fiber preforms and semiconductor materials. In recent years, the concentrated emit of new production capacity in Asia is rewriting the global supply and demand structure.

Multiple domestic companies have been continuously laying out high-purity silicon tetrachloride production capacity:

Sanfu Co., Ltd. currently has a total production capacity of 30,000 tons per year, and its devices are basically operating at full capacity. Its product condition can supply the European special optical fiber market, and exports have been realized;

Jianghan New Materials' 10,000 tons per year 6N-grade high-purity silicon tetrachloride device is under construction, and it is expected to enter the commissioning stage in January 2027;

The relevant production capacity of Zhejiang Yage Xin'an, the affiliated subsidiary of Xin'an Co., Ltd., was put into operation in June 2026.

The shutdown of Evonik's Bitterfeld plant means that another manufacturer in the European high-purity silicon tetrachloride field will be reduced.