JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #114 - July 2017 - 16

BUSINESS thermoset resin - Part B

Fig. 2: Olin's integrated epoxy value chain

epoxy resin to the composite
industry. The company's
strategy is to continue growing
in the chloro and chlor-alkali
business and to maintain its
number one position, but
it also has a big interest in
developing the downstream
business
and
becoming
stronger in most specialized
segments, especially those
requiring back integration
within our businesses, like
epoxy.
How old is your company and
who are your shareholders?

J. A. M. : Olin is a public
company with a very broad
mix of shareholders. This year,
the company is celebrating
125 years since incorporation
and became the 17th company
in the US to reach 100 years of
share trading on the New York
Stock Exchange (NYSE). We
have a lot of knowledge about
the chlorine and chlor-alkali
businesses, among others.
Olin is well established in the
US and growing in Europe.
In the long run, our company

16

has proven to be able to
produce complex and delicate
chemicals safely with a very
high environmental effort.
What about your epoxy branch
and composites?

J. A. M. : Composite resin

systems are a field that is
growing but still needs
development that we want to
support. Cost continues to
be a fundamental parameter
for the development of
composites in the competition
against other materials. And
Olin has a huge advantage
in this regard as it is the
only company in the world
that is fully back integrated
into the two epoxy groups:
epichlorohydrin
chlorines
and phenolic raw materials
made by the cumene process.
And we are listening very
carefully to our customers'
needs.

Are you investing in epoxy
to go downstream with all
your building blocks and avoid
volatility?

jec composites magazine / N°114 July 2017

J. A. M. : Beyond the
volatility of prices, I think the
huge value of back integration
is that you can optimize your
total cost. In our flowchart,
we have more than 50 variables than we can optimize.
The second huge advantage is
that we can secure our availability. Epoxy comes and goes.
It's getting short, it's getting
long. We're in the comfortable situation that as a fully
back-integrated
company
(Editor's note: see figure2),
we always have access to the
raw materials we need for
our business and customers.
The supply of phenolic raw
materials or epichlorohydrin
or liquid epoxy resin is in our
hands and we can assure a
reliable delivery. This allows
us to focus on our strategy.
What is your strategy?

J. A. M. : Our strategy is
to grow our epoxy business
profitably. This is something I
always underline. The industry
is in a very bad situation. You
can look at the results of other

companies and come to your
own conclusions. Our second
goal in our epoxy strategy is to
show leadership in meeting the
needs of our customers. This
means being much closer to
the customers, understanding
what they need, putting
more focus on innovation
and putting more focus on
getting the capacity where
it is needed. Olin is putting
a lot of effort into this and
willing to invest as practical.
We are innovative and have a
technology expertise of more
than 60 years to create demand
for Epoxy molecules. This is
why we have a strong structure
for research & development.
We are focusing innovation
mainly on composites, without
forgetting coatings and civil
engineering, or electrical
laminates
among
other
applications. Composites are
an area where we act with high
effort in terms of development
because we have been a little
dormant in the past years, now
we are catching up quickly.
As Olin, being a leader
enables us to have the most
cost efficient incremental
expansions in Epoxy, thanks
to our world class integrated
sites in Stade, Germany
(Editor's note: see figure 1),
and Freeport, Texas. We have
space, technology, expertise
and raw materials available at
our sites. We use a bit more
than half of the raw materials
for our internal consumption -
but we can raise this following
our needs. We are convinced
that the industry will need
more capacity in 2020 if the
current growth continues.
We are well positioned for
expansion when the time
comes.
Could you tell us about your
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #114 - July 2017
