Evonik Degussa Antwerpen NV continues to invest in a sustainable future

The Antwerp chemical company Evonik Degussa Antwerpen NV has published its fourth Sustainability Report. Despite the difficult economic climate, Evonik Degussa Antwerpen NV managed to maintain its position relatively good. This is not only due to the product portfolio of the chemical company in the port of Antwerp that turned out to be less cyclically sensitive, but certainly also to the commitment of all its employees.

Social

In 2009 the demand for certain products dropped also at Evonik Degussa Antwerpen NV, but fortunately not to the extent that the employment was threatened. The employees showed flexibility in their effort to take on new tasks temporarily or permanently. The company took every chance to improve the future prospects and the development possibilities of the employees. The vacant time was used to follow training programmes and acquire further qualifications. An important milestone was the start of the I-bus (Industry bus)-project end December 2009. I-bus is a mobility project where six chemical companies team up to provide combined bus services to their employees. This alternative makes an important contribution to the mobility and air pollution problem caused by the increasing volume of road traffic.

Environment

In terms of environment Evonik Degussa Antwerpen NV makes more efforts than the standards prescribe. In 2009 more than 2.34 million EUR was invested and particularly successful actions were taken in order to reduce the specific air emission per ton produced product. Also in the future the company wants to further optimize its environmental approach and keeps looking for innovative methods leading to improvement. In terms of safety and health, as well as education, new important investments of approx. 0.8 million EUR were made.

Financial

The global economic downturn in 2009 had also its consequences for the activities of Evonik Degussa Antwerpen NV. Despite this crisis the Antwerp chemical company managed to maintain its position relatively good. In the fourth quarter of 2009 an upturn in economic activity was noticeable. Evonik Degussa Antwerpen NV could still close the 2009 fiscal year with sales of 399.3 million EUR, a decline of 7.5 percent compared with 2008. This was due to the declining volumes as well as the declining raw material prices.

Lutz Hippe, Managing Director of Evonik Degussa Antwerpen NV: “Investing in a sustainable future for our company remains a constant in our policy. But we are also aware that there still are challenges we could perform better on. In 2010 and the coming years we will keep working on it in dialogue with our employees, social partners, stakeholders and environment.”

Do you want to receive a Sustainability Report of Evonik Degussa Antwerpen NV? Koen Van den Steen, Communication Responsible, 03 560 33 30 or 0476 71 66 60. You can also consult it on this website.