The third largest among the countries’ states (with 13.9% of the country’s total workforce), Bavaria’s chemical industry operates on a worldwide scale--as shown by its export rate of 48% (far higher than that of the state’s manufacturing sector as a whole)--and is highly innovative. These innovations are produced by such global players as Wacker Chemie and Süd-Chemie (both headquartered in Bavaria) and as BASF and Clariant (which maintain research and production facilities in the state), and by some 250 SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises).

With a total workforce of 61,000 and annual sales of €16,3 billion, Bavaria’s chemical industry is one of the largest in the state’s manufacturing sector. Its range of products is commensurately large and covers nearly the entire spectrum of chemicals marketed. The industry’s main products are pharmaceutical specialties, primary plastics, paints, lacquers and putties, body care products, and chemical fibers.

The main venues of propylene and ethylene-based petrochemical production in Bavaria are Münchsmünster (located in the vicinity of Ingolstadt), Burghausen and the twin communities of Burgkirchen and Gendorf. Located in Burghausen and Münchsmünster, the crackers maintained by OMV and Basell respectively use on-site pipelines to deliver their products to their customers, which include such manufacturers of plastics as Basell, Borealis and Vinnolit, and such producers of a wide range of special-purpose items as Wacker Chemie and Clariant.

Accounting for some 40% of its turnover and employment, Bavaria is a center of Germany’s chemical fiber manufacturing industry. Trevira, Invista, Johns Manville and Teijin Monofilament have facilities in the town of Bobingen; Cordenka, Diolen Industrial Fibers and Polyamide High Performance in Obernburg; Kelheim Fibers in the town of the same name; and TWD Fibres in Deggendorf. These companies develop, manufacture and process special-purpose fibers. These are used in everything from fashion to high-tech. Closely linked with the production and processing of chemical fibers are the development and manufacturing of fiber finishing chemicals (textile supplies) by such world-leader as Bavaria’s DyStar and Rudolf Chemie GmbH.

German companies account for roughly half of Europe’s market for construction chemicals—and one third of the world market. Including such global players as Evonik and Wacker Chemie, the world’s leaders (as viewed by technologies developed or sales registered) are either headquartered or based (meaning that their most important divisions are located in Bavaria) in the state. Formulaters produce such products as cement, mortar and paints. Most of the state’s manufacturers are such medium-sized ones as PCI Augsburg and Otto-Chemie. Also at this level of processing are a number of world leaders maintaining operations in Bavaria. These include Keimfarben GmbH & Co. KG (the world’s leading manufacturer of silicate coatings) and Knauf Gips. The latter is one of the leading international manufacturers of construction materials (plaster and mineral fiber insulating materials).

Once completed, the Ethylene Processing System pipeline will link Münchsmünster and Ludwigshafen. The pipeline will thus form part of the dedicated grid spanning the Benelux and the Rhine valley. This new link will provide the state’s ethylene processing sector with impetus for further growth by imparting the supply chain with a greater flexibility and sustainability. The EPS offers the option of hooking up with ethylene processing facilities in Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and the Ukraine.

Corporate research
Nearly all of the chemical companies in the state maintain dedicated R & D operations in it. Prime among these is the Munich-based Consortium for the Electrochemical Industry research center maintained by Wacker Chemie, the Heufeld-based main research department of Süd-Chemie AG, and the Trostberg-based center of expertise in construction chemicals of the AlzChem group. To foster the sector’s working relationships with Bavaria’s universities and universities of applied sciences, the state’s chemical associations launched an exchange for research topics.

Research at Bavaria’s institutions of higher education
Chemistry is one of the main subjects taught and researched at Bavaria’s universities. This broad-ranging and in-depth approach to chemistry is taken by the departments and chairs of chemistry maintained at six of Bavaria’s universities. One of these—TUM (Technical University Munich) has been accorded top rankings in the ISI and CEST surveys. Other universities include:

• University of Augsburg: 2 chairs; main topics: solid state chemicals, materials engineering and the chemistry of physics
• University of Bayreuth: 11 chairs and 6 professorships; main topics: macromolecular and colloid research, advanced materials, molecular-based biosciences
• Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen-Nuremberg: 10 chairs; main topics: materials, processes, and pharmaceutical chemistry
• Ludwig-Maximilans University of Munich: 31 professors and 24 other working circles covering a broad range of research topics
• Technical University of Munich: 19 chairs und 6 external instructors; main topics: catalysts and materials and biological-based chemistry
• University of Regensburg: 4 institutes comprised of eight chairs and 15 working circles; main topics: medical chemistry and engineering materials used weak bonding forces
• Julius-Maximilians-University of Würzburg: 11 chairs and 17 other working circles; main topics: biological-based and medical-application chemistry, physical chemistry, organic metallic chemistry, the dynamics of chemical systems, and high resolution spectroscopy.

Bavaria’s universities of applied sciences include the Nuremberg-based Georg-Simon-Ohm. It has departments of applied chemistry and of materials engineering. Other universities of applied sciences in Bavaria undertaking chemical research:

• UAS Ansbach and its department of energy and environmental engineering
• UAS Augsburg and its department of industrial engineering; degree program in environmental and processing technologies
• UAS Hof; degree program in materials for systems
• UAS Rosenheim and its department of plastics technologies
• UAS Weihenstephan
• UAS Würzburg-Schweinfurt and its department of plastics technologies and measurement

Non-university research facilities
The following facilities are not affiliated with universities and undertake R & D related to chemistry:

• Max-Planck-Institute for Biochemistry in Martinsried
• SKZ South German Center of Plastics in Würzburg
• Center of Expertise in Materials Engineering in Bayreuth, Fürth and Würzburg

From Bavaria and for its chemical industry: highly qualified staff members
The successes registered by Bavaria’s chemical industry are attributable to the large pool of highly qualified and motivated employees which it can tap. Many of these employees are graduates from Bavaria’s institutions of higher education, which maintain chemical research facilities of international renown, and which also turn out specialists with advanced scientific qualifications.

Bavaria’s chemical companies are also highly active in on-the-job training. This vocational education is currently being conducted by some 125 companies and involves more than 2,000 young persons. The professions which they are learning include such traditional ones as chemical technicians or laboratory staff members. Other professions involve handling business and technical operations.

Some 17,000 people work for the chemical companies based in Bavaria’s Chemical Triangle, which has the great expanse of any venue of activity in Bavaria. A further 8,000 are employed by the manufacturers and service providers commissioned by the companies. The business area bordered by the Inn and Salzach rivers is comprised of the Altötting (in which Burghausen and the Gendorf industrial park are located), Mühldorf am Inn (in which Aschau, Töging and Waldkraiburg are located) and Traunstein (Trostberg) districts. This region accounts for more than a quarter of the people employed by Bavaria’s chemical industry, and more than a third of the industry’s sales. The region’s main areas of activity are petrochemicals, plastics, ultra-pure silicon, and construction and special purpose chemicals.

Further, small-sized areas of activity (with some taking the form of integrated chemical parks) include:

• Munich / Starnberg / Weilheim (pharmaceuticals, chemical specialties)
• Ingolstadt / Münchsmünster / Kelheim (petrochemicals, chemical fibers)
• Augsburg (chemical fibers and specialties, paints); this region is home to the Gersthofen and Bobingen industrial parks
• Nuremberg/Erlangen (pharmaceuticals, paints and chemical specialties)
• Lower Main /Miltenberg district (chemical fibers, plastics); this region is home to the Obernburg industrial center.

The main recipients of the support provided by Bavaria’s ministry of economic affairs, infrastructure, transport and technology to technological development in the field are start-ups and SMEs. The thrust of the materials engineering program is the development and application of new materials.

„Key Technologies in Bavaria“ is a databank containing entries on Bavaria’s chemical companies.