Expansions: Wacker/Sico open tech centre in China for silanes; Merck opens semiconductor solutions site in Taiwan

Having recently announced plans to cut jobs, mainly in Germany, silicones supplier Wacker is strengthening its specialties business in markets that are profitable, especially in Asia.

The company has tied up with Chinese specialty silane producer and joint-venture partner Sico Performance Material to open a new application development centre for organofunctional silanes in Jining, China.

The 2,300-sq-m facility features several laboratories where high-performance additives for the plastics, coatings and adhesives industries will be developed going forward.

In addition, the technology centre acts as an interface between research, technical support and production. For example, Sico’s production and scale-up resources, which are likewise located in Jining, can be fully leveraged for development work. The technology centre thus enables the rapid market launch of new products.

Investments in the Wacker Sico Application Development Centre (ADC) facility total a mid-six-figure euro sum.

The companies say they have decades of experience in organofunctional silanes. They are used, for example, as adhesion promoters for the production of high-performance adhesives, sealants and coatings, as binders for composite materials or as additives to enhance plastics.

Because specialty silanes improve the mechanical and chemical properties of products, demand for such hybrid polymers has been rising for many years.

Furthermore, the application development centre is located in Jining, not far from Sico’s own production site.

The centre’s focus is on the development of additives, adhesion promoters and stabilisers based on organofunctional silanes and functional silicone fluids.

Such specialty silanes make it possible to formulate high-quality adhesives and sealants, coatings and plastic products, which in turn are used in a large number of high-tech sectors, such as electromobility, electronics, power engineering, telecommunications, and coatings.

In other news, science firm Merck has inaugurated its Semiconductor Solutions megasite in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, after investing a total of EUR500 million.

The new integrated production site focuses on semiconductor materials, especially Thin Films – the business within the Electronics business sector of Merck that recorded record sales in the third quarter of 2025, driven by surging demand for AI applications. Thin film technology allows materials to be deposited and removed on an atomic level, enabling more layers, higher complexity and new chip architectures essential for advanced semiconductors.

Covering 150,000 sq m, the Kaohsiung site is the company’s largest semiconductor materials campus worldwide. It focuses on thin films, formulation materials and specialty gases for high-precision layering, etching and patterning processes in advanced semiconductor production.

These materials are essential for manufacturing next-generation logic and memory chips, particularly for AI applications.

Through a “lab-to-fab, fab-to-lab” approach, Merck adds it is strengthening the local supply chain and enabling seamless collaboration between research labs and wafer fabs.

The new site will begin production in 2026, creating 150 additional jobs in Kaohsiung.

Built to LEED Gold standards, the facility showcases advanced smart manufacturing through digital twin technology, improving precision and efficiency while supporting predictive maintenance and process optimisation. Renewable energy supply offsets 50% of annual electricity consumption, the company says.

Over the last five years, Electronics has invested over EUR3 billion worldwide in capacity and innovation in lockstep with major customers, increasing its supply chain resilience.

SUBSCRIBE to Get the Latest Updates from PRA    Click Here»