Ready, Set, Go: We are ready für 2022!

Chal­len­ging, volatile and successful - that's how we would describe our Bruegge­mann year. The 2021 finish line has been reached - we are ready for 2022!

Indus­trial Chem­icals and Plastic Addit­ives

The two busi­ness units, indus­trial chem­icals and plastic addit­ives, exper­i­enced high demand, espe­cially at the begin­ning of last year. Such strong demand in the first quarter was excep­tional and continued throughout the year. However, although produc­tion was running at full speed all year round to meet demand, unre­li­able supply chains, diffi­culties in the trans­port market and rising raw material prices made fulfilling customer orders chal­len­ging.

Alcohol

Widely fluc­tu­ating needs and supply bottle­necks char­ac­ter­ized the alcohol year 2021. Once again it became clear how important it is to be flex­ible and diver­si­fied. Thanks to our two plants, in Heil­bronn and Luth­er­stadt Witten­berg, and a total storage capa­city of around 20,000 m³, we were able to buffer the unusu­ally strong fluc­tu­ations and were able to deliver at all times.

For 2022 we expect a situ­ation similar to 2021 and have prepared as best we can in all areas - it remains exciting!

Upcoming Fairs and Confer­ences

The Corona Pandemic has once again had a major impact on our work and personal life. We hope that the pandemic situ­ation will allow more personal exchanges again this year. In all prob­ab­ility, there will be an excel­lent oppor­tunity for a personal meeting at the K trade fair from October 19th to 26th, 2022 in Düssel­dorf, the DKT - German Rubber Confer­ence from June 27th to 30th, 2022 in Nurem­berg, the Chin­a­plas from April 25th to 28th, 2022 in Shanghai, China and the Amer­ican Coat­ings Show from April 5th to 7th 2022 in Indi­ana­polis, USA.

 

Sustain­ab­ility

The company already addressed the topic of sustain­ab­ility in 2021 and it will be one of the central topics in 2022.

Elec­tro­mobility leads to changed require­ments in the auto­motive sector. For the higher current load in elec­tric motors, plastic addit­ives are required that do not cause corro­sion, are flame retardant and can tolerate high temper­at­ures. One of several newly developed addit­ives in the field, BRUG­GOLEN® TP-H2062, meets the stated require­ments. We have also initi­ated some product devel­op­ments in the area of ​​re­cyc­ling. The addit­ives BRUG­GOLEN® TP-R2090 and R8895 were developed for PP recyc­ling. Further addit­ives are currently being developed for PE recyc­ling. 

Would you like to find out more about our product devel­op­ments? Contact us!

An important component of our sustain­ab­ility program is the purchase of raw mater­ials. Thanks to our water connec­tion, a total of 140 tank truck trans­ports were replaced with 3 ship deliv­eries. Compared to a 40-ton artic­u­lated lorry, an inland waterway vessel consumes less than a third of the energy (source: Federal Envir­on­ment Agency). This results in a CO2 reduc­tion compared to conven­tional road trans­port.

In 2022, Bruegge­mann will build a biomass heating plant at the Heil­bronn site in close prox­imity to the produc­tion in order to cover its own process heat require­ments. As a result, Bruegge­mann will signi­fic­antly reduce its fossil CO2 foot­print as early as 2023 and make an active contri­bu­tion to the energy trans­ition.

Trans­itions

At the end of 2021 we said goodbye two of our managing directors, Dr. Josef Berg­hofer and Joachim Hofmann, who have managed the company very success­fully in recent years. Their successor is Dr. Stefan Laetsch, who has been the company's managing director since April last year. Among other things, Dr. Laetsch brings signi­ficant inter­na­tional exper­i­ence and will continue to drive forward the inter­na­tion­al­iz­a­tion and growth of the company with the entire Bruegge­mann team.

The year 2021 is over. The finish line has been crossed. We are in the starting blocks and look forward to the next chal­lenge - the year 2022 - and we say: Ready, Set, Go!

Addi­tional Stories

Brügge­mann is one of the initial signing members of the "Antwerp Declar­a­tion"

In February 73 leaders from diverse European indus­tries came together in Brus­sels to present the "Antwerp Declar­a­tion for a European Indus­trial Deal." to Belgian Prime Minister Alex­ander De Croo and European Commis­sion Pres­ident Ursula von der Leyen.

Read the story

Commis­sioning of New Biomass Heating Plant at the Heil­bronn Site

With the commis­sioning of its new biomass heating plant in 2023, Brugge­mann will change its energy supply at the Heil­bronn site from fossil to renew­able energy sources. In future, we will use about 15,000 metric tons of biomass per year to cover our heating require­ments. 

With our innov­ative biomass heating plant, we not only focuse on effi­cient energy gener­a­tion, but also create a signi­ficant bond to sustain­ab­ility. The CO2 emis­sions of our products is decreasing consid­er­ably. 

In turn our customers profit directly, redu­cing their carbon foot­print and bene­fiting by supporting their sustain­ab­ility goals. Brugge­mann creates a future where advanced chem­istry and sustain­able thinking are the essen­tial bond.

Addi­tional stories are on our Over­view page.