Wacker calls for better rail link to German chemical hub

06 October 2010 18:42  [Source: ICIS news]

TORONTO (ICIS)--Wacker Chemie wants Germany's Bavaria state to upgrade a rail link to the company's chemical plants in Burghausen southeast of Munich, a top company executive said on Wednesday.

Wacker board member Auguste Willems said the current one-track link was an “obstacle to investment” and jeopardised jobs. Failing an upgrade, Wacker would shift future investments elsewhere, he said.

The current situation, which forced much of the transport to be handled by truck, was not commercially viable in the long run, Willems told German daily Munchener Merkur in an interview. A media official at Wacker’s headquarters in Munich confirmed the interview to ICIS.

Willems said Wacker could shift its future investments in siloxane and polysilicon to its site near Dresden in Saxony state.

Wacker employs almost 10,000 workers at Burghausen, its largest production site in Bavaria. Overall employment at the "Chemical Delta" in southeastern Bavaria , which includes production sites at Burghausen, Gendorf and Trostberg, is about 25,000.

German rail infrastructure projects are typically undertaken by national rail carrier Deutsche Bank, with funding from federal and state governments.

In April, Deutsche Bahn said it started work on a new 160-metre bridge to improve rail access to the chemical production sites in southeastern Bavaria.

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By: Stefan Baumgarten
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