Interview: Currenta CEO Hilken Plans to Make Chempark Europe’s Chemical Flagship

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What Remains to be Done?

That makes a good case for the industry, but exactly how does that play out at the parks?

Hilken: We operate power stations and have our own grids at the sites. We are also a big customer. Our goal is to supply electricity, steam, etc. to our customers at competitive prices while guaranteeing maximum availability. A chemical park is a special construct, and laws must not be introduced which place it at a disadvantage. In some ways, the Energy Act could possibly have worked to the detriment of the build, own and operate model and parks housing many separate companies compared to single-company sites.

We need a predictable planning horizon, and grid expansion must be driven forward. At the moment, policy is heavily focused on power generation, and as a result grid expansion has stagnated in recent years. Grid quality is one of the main concerns in our industry. The frequency of brief outages has increased in recent years. A domestic refrigerator can cope quite well with an interruption lasting five milliseconds, but that type of event creates risks at a complex, integrated site.

Additional Information

CV – Günter Hilken

Back to the roots

Günter Hilken (57) is married with two children. He has a degree in chemistry and a doctorate in organic chemistry (1983) from the University of Cologne. In 1984 Hilken, who was born in Leverkusen/Germany, joined the Rubber Business Unit at Bayer in Dormagen/Germany where he worked as a research chemist for various organizations in the Rubber and Polyurethane units. Starting in 1994 after several years as Department Manager for Process Development in the Rubber Business Unit R&D organization, he worked as Operations Manager in rubber production and as Plant Manager in Canada. In 1999, Hilken was appointed President of the Fibers, Additives and Rubber Division at Bayer Corp. in Akron (USA). He returned to Leverkusen in 2002 where he took charge of Global Operations MDI at Bayer Polymers. He was named Manager of the Polycarbonates Business Unit in 2004. In this capacity, he was appointed to the Bayer MaterialScience Executive Committee in 2007. Hilken joined Currenta in 2011, and he has been Executive Board Chairman of Currenta GmbH & Co. OHG since August 1st, 2011.

What goals have you set for the next five years?

Hilken: We will need to invest around €500 million a year to maintain our current assets. We have done that this year. Over the past 10 to 15 years, there has been more of a tendency for companies to move out, but we have now reversed that trend and we firmly expect that the figures will be even better for 2012. Success is not always measured by how many new companies we attract. Expansion of existing facilities can also be highly significant, for example expansion of the Uerdingen polycarbonate plant to 400 KT. I am very optimistic that over the next three to five years we will lay the foundation for realization of significant additional investment.

Mr. Hilken thank you for the interview.

* The interview was conducted by PROCESS Editor-in-Chief Gerd Kielburger.

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Interview: Chemical Parks

Interview: Currenta CEO Hilken Plans to Make Chempark Europe’s Chemical Flagship

What Remains to be Done?