bluestar silicones celebrated its 10th anniversary for joining bluestar, subsidiary of chemchina on february 16. on the ceremony, the elastomer production workshop in its saint fons plant, an investment of 15 million euros, was also inaugurated. michel delpuech, prefect of the auvergne-rhône-alpes region and the rhône, and gérard collomb, senator-mayor of lyon and président of the metropolitan city of lyon were present at the ceremony.
created in 2007, following the acquisition of rhodia silicones by bluestar, bluestar silicones has grown into one of the main producer of silicones worldwide. in the past 10 years, this sino-french collaboration, has successfully energized this silicone activity, driven by high growth and very demanding markets in terms of investments in the industry, r&d, or operational excellence. the french expertise brought its technology and knowledge on specialty activities and production bases in europe, while the chinese expertise brought its capacity, long term industrial vision and global growth strategy. annual sales of bluestar silicones reached to 525 million euros after 10-year development.
it has been reinforced in 2011 by an upstream integration and industrial synergies with the arrival of elkem, global leader in silicon. bluestar’s acquisition of elkem enabled itself to offer all-around solutions in the industry.
in practical terms, tens of million euros have been invested every year in the industrial facilities, especially in france and china, qualified jobs have been created and preserved, and the r&d has been strengthened, providing continuous driving force for bluestar silicones.
the workshop inaugurated on the ceremony was a good example. supported by bluestar, bluestar silicones invested 15 million euros in 2016 in its elastomer unit on the historic saint fons plant. most of this investment was dedicated to building a new production workshop in performance elastomers, with the first part being operational since december 2016.
focusing primarily on improving productivity and reinforcing the quality level of bluestar silicones’ elastomers, this workshop allows a greater production capacity, increased by 50 percent and provides to higher value-added market such as medical, food and beverages, and aeronautics. furthermore, the high end technologies brought by this investment, especially the automation of operations, also allow a great improvement of working conditions for bluestar silicones employees.
“a lot of people were wondering about our future after our company was bought by a state owned bluestar in 2007. today, no one doubts the mutual interest of this association. the industrial vision of our chinese shareholder, reinforced by our upstream integration with the norwegian group elkem and the french creativity, are why we have the ambition to reach the top 3 of global silicon leaders,” declared frédéric jacquin, bluestar silicones ceo.
bluestar ceo michael koenig in a speech highly appreciated the support from local government in auvergne-rhône-alpes region and lyon over the past ten years. the leading education environment, strong r&d background and culture of inclusiveness in the region provided sound condition for bluestar’s local investment and development, he said.
bluestar silicones and adisseo employ directly almost 2000 people in france, half of them in auvergne-rhône-alpes region. the strong connection that exists between the auvergne-rhône-alpes region, the city of lyon, and bluestar, have played a great role in this win-win partnership.