On April 3, Covestro has successfully completed the sale of its additive manufacturing business to 3D printing company Stratasys. The group had already announced in August 2022 that it would sell its additive manufacturing business for approximately 43 million euros. In addition, potential benefits of up to EUR 37 million have been agreed, subject to the achievement of various performance indicators.
With the divestiture of the Additive Manufacturing business, Covestro continues to optimize its product portfolio with an increased focus on providing a broad range of products to customers in key customer industries. As part of its ‘Sustainable Future’ strategy, Covestro is focusing on sustainability and total circularity.
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On August 8, 2022, Covestro announced on its official website that it will sell its additive manufacturing business to Stratasys.
The divested business of Covestro includes employees, research and development facilities, production assets and offices in the Netherlands, Germany, the United States and China, as well as an extensive network with global partners. The business provides material solutions for common polymer 3D printing processes. The Additive Manufacturing business portfolio also includes products from Covestro’s Resins and Functional Materials business acquired from DSM in 2021, including brands such as Somos® and Addigy®.
Most of the acquired entity’s employees will continue to work in Geeren, the Netherlands and Elgin, Illinois, USA.
In fact, Covestro has always been an important partner of Stratasys’ third-party material ecosystem. This acquisition will benefit users of Stratasys’ multiple 3D printing platforms, including Origin
P3™, Neo® Stereolithography and H350™ printers. Stratasys is also a distributor of Covestro’s Somos® resin material, which is available for Neo and Origin® One
3D printer.
Stratasys CEO Yoav
Dr. Zeif said: “The acquisition of Covestro’s highly respected additive manufacturing business will help us further expand the application of the latest technology. Now we have the ability to accelerate the frontier development of 3D printing materials, which will also promote us to provide the best in the industry.” , The development strategy of the most complete polymer 3D printing product portfolio. ”
Covestro’s “Sustainable Future” strategy
Despite the current global challenges, Covestro is still methodically implementing the “Sustainable Future” strategy and actively adjusting its product line to better meet the needs of growth markets. These include future-important fields such as electric vehicles and wind energy, where the demand for high-performance and sustainable materials is expected to grow significantly. Energy efficiency improvements are another area expected to grow, such as efficient insulation solutions for buildings and refrigerators.
In addition, Covestro is optimizing its production capacity in a targeted manner to promote sustainable development, strengthening its product line and cost posture related to products such as MDI. For example, in February this year, a new world-scale factory was successfully launched at the base in Tarragona, Spain, to realize the independent production of chlorine gas for self-use. With an investment of approximately EUR 200 million, the production facility will enhance the energy efficiency and competitiveness of Covestro’s local MDI plant. The new plant is also the world’s first industrial-scale chlorine plant to use innovative oxygen depolarized cathode technology (ODC), which can save up to 25% in energy consumption.
In addition, the company continues to advance its vision of being fully circular, looking to move away from fossil resources in the long term by expanding the use of alternative resources. For example, the Group is gradually converting the electricity of each production base to renewable energy. The latest case is the green power purchase agreement signed with CGN New Energy in December last year. Starting this year, Covestro will purchase approximately 300 million kilowatt-hours of wind power and solar photovoltaic power generation from CGN New Energy every year to meet 30% of the power demand of its Shanghai integrated base. In other bases around the world, Covestro has also signed a series of green power procurement agreements. In 2022, about 12% of the Group’s global energy demand will come from renewable energy power generation. In 2023, this proportion is expected to rise to 16%-18%.
Stratasys is a large Israeli 3D printing company global player in applied additive technology solutions for industries such as aerospace, automotive, medical, consumer goods and education. In the past 30 years, the company’s continuous and in-depth focus on customer business needs has promoted the company’s targeted innovation. At present, the company has a total of 1,200 approved and pending additive technologies. New value is created in the entire product life cycle of parts, including stratasys China of course.
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