Understanding the needs that will drive markets in the future and translating them into new products and services is the main job of our R&D departments. We have begun to expand our Research & Development capabilities to address overarching issues of importance to our industry.
 
Up to now R&D has been focused on optimizing existing products in existing markets. This accounted for about 70 percent of all our R&D activities while 15 percent was spent either on the development of existing products for new markets or of new products for existing markets.

This strategy will remain our focus, but at the same time we will strengthen our activities with regard to developing new products for new markets as well. We will start our work from within our individual business units, since they know best what customers are looking for and what kind of innovation should ultimately resonate with them.

This is how our approach works:

• We work closely with customers.
• We are focusing more and more on the field of “Green Chemistry” .
• We rely on best-in-class support departments, including our world-class process engineering.
• We have a central Research & Development coordination department and support units to assure interaction and knowledge exchange.