Advanced Materials Businesses in Several Global Chemical Companies

 In a previous blog, I showed the reporting segment names used by 38 global chemical companies.  (Click here to see that blog.)   Two of the 38 companies have advanced materials in one of their reporting segments names (Arkema and Solvay).   

In this blog, I provide brief descriptions in the table below on those two companies’ (Arkema and Solvay) advanced materials businesses.  I also reviewed the annual reports of the other 36 companies as to what advanced materials businesses they have, even though they have no advanced materials reporting business segments.  The other companies that indicate advanced materials businesses are also presented in the table, along with brief descriptions of their advanced materials businesses based on my review of the companies’ annual reports.  Altogether, 11 of the 38 companies indicate advanced materials businesses, and 27 of the 38 companies report no advanced materials businesses and are not listed in the table below.

 

company	advanced materials businesses
arkema	high performance polymers	examples: pvdf for batteries; polyamides, e.g. pekk	for use in: wind power; metal substitutes; smart phones
basf	new applications for: isocyanates; polyamides; plastic specialties
chemours	fluoroproducts
dsm	advanced materials with high performance levels	in medical area: gowns and tubes	in water area: faucets, etc.	bio-based thermoplastics for metal replacements, etc.
dupont	polymer-based high performance materials, differentiating customers' products
eastman	polymers, films, and plastics with differentiated performance properties	Examples: cellulose esters; polyesters; polyvinyl butyral (pvb); polyester films
huntsman	replaces traditional materials	examples: epoxy, acrylic, and polyurethane-based polymer resin systems
sekisui	for urban infrastructure use - polymer materials
solvay	advanced materials for use in urban areas
toray	replacement with advanced materials for use to transform health care, electronics
tosoh	synthetic zeolites	silica glass	zirconia

Here are some conclusions from my research of the annual reports of the 38 global chemical companies related to their “advanced materials” businesses: 

• Many of the companies in the table above refer to their advanced materials business as one which replaces older, traditional materials with newer-developed materials.  The material is often a polymer.  And an important distinguishing feature of the material is that the material is unique and differentiates by its use. 
• In a previous blog in this series of blogs in which I am examining how 38 global chemical companies describe their businesses in their  annual reports, I write about those chemical companies that describe “special chemicals” businesses.   (Click here to read that blog.)  These special chemical businesses are described by the companies in their annual reports in similar terms to how “advanced materials” businesses are described.  Both businesses (special chemicals and advanced materials) are attempting to bring differentiating properties in the products that they are providing to customers.   A difference seems to be that in the special chemicals business individual chemicals are being providing that help the customers produced finished products, while in the advanced materials business, products are usually finished polymers that are incorporated in the customers products. 
• In both special chemicals and advanced materials businesses, strong research and development programs are needed to support the success of the businesses. 
• In addition to “special chemicals” and “advanced materials” being used in annual reports as reporting segment names, the term “high performance” chemical or material or polymer are found as reporting segment names.   In my next blog, I will try to provide information on how “high performance” might differ and relate to “special chemical” and “advanced materials”.