solvay_live243_p02a04 somEdito

Dossier SolvayInnovationTrophy2006
NAFTA FACTORING
FACTORING MAKES
NORTH AMERICA
ITS FIRST EXPORT MARKET
When a formula works, why not apply it
elsewhere?
This logic is partly what triggered CICC, the
internal bank and centraliser of the Group’s
commercial flows, to set up factoring
management in the USA (NAFTA region)
now that it has proven its value for the Group’s
European subsidiaries.
Factoring consists of centralising all the financial
movements linked to the commercial activity:
follow through of invoices, cashing of
payments, risk management. Up to date, each
American, Canadian or Mexican company of the
Group managed these aspects of the customer
relationships separately. The project sets out to
centralise this activity in Houston (USA) for all
the subsidiaries of the NAFTA region.
At the service of the SBUs, which thus gain a
competitive edge, centralised factoring will
make it possible to get to know the customers
better, to manage the consolidated positions,
to reduce the commercial risk, to optimise the
working capital, while reducing the processing
costs and ensuring a simpler and therefore less
expensive maintenance of the systems. The
amounts in circulation are quite considerable:
two billion dollars of turnover on which we can
reduce the late payments and accelerate
the financial flows: it is a winning solution that
the CICC is soon set to export to Asia as well.
> Jean-François Caillol; Anne-Marie Bruylants;
Edgar Case; Heather Haidik.
> BSC CICC
72
104985
105235
ESSENTIALITY OF CHEMICALS
CHEMICALS AT THE HEART
OF OUR LIFE
The “Essentiality of Chemicals” project
is a new way of promoting the social
and economic value of our “essential products”
portfolio. This is pursuit through the
organisation of « all in one » events: scientific
debates, events underlining the advantages but
also the limits of the progress of technology via
original initiatives around a long-term dialogue
with representatives of the academic, scientific
and public world, NGO, consumer associations
or the press. This new method of dialogue,
which sets out to be authentic and constructive,
has already taken the form of a symposium,
bringing together in Milan (Italy)
representatives of the authorities, the university
and the press, or visits of the innovative
activities developed in our sites, or even
training workshops for non specialists about
the basic notions of toxicology.
Although essential for our quality of life, our
health, our food, as well as for the role it plays
at the heart of a significant socio-economic
activity, chemistry is nevertheless mistrusted, as
it is misunderstood. A considerable challenge
consists on facilitating the access to the
scientific data necessary for the accurate
understanding of the subject. Certain people
and entities we contacted have accepted to
take up the challenge by contributing, together
with Solvay, to the creation of the independent
NGO GreenFacts (www.greenfacts.org).
The latter publishes, in several languages
and, above all, in a layman’s language, the
summaries of the most recognised international
reports in the field of health and environment
which often involve chemistry related issues.
> Giuseppe Malinverno; Jacques de Gerlache;
Fabio Novelli.
> CC COM & PA
101509
EROSION FREE DISTRIBUTION FOR
OXYCHLORINATION REACTORS
A NEW LOOK
AT AN OLD PROBLEM
The oxychlorination reactors used in the
VCM production process are traditionally
equipped with metallic nozzles that operate
in extreme conditions and suffer
considerably from the effects of erosion.
They are given a lifetime of two years,
during which they undergo a degradation
process that leads to a reduction in efficiency.
Rheinberg (Germany) wanted to put a stop
to this situation and launched a creative
project with an external company and the
local University. Together, they designed new
nozzles. In practice, problems arose with the
fixing of these nozzles onto the reactor grid,
which had to be solved. As the results were
excellent (2003), Tavaux/France, then
Jemeppe/Belgium (2005) adopted the new
design, after making a few modifications.
The nozzles perfectly play their role in the
continuous distribution of the reagents
at the heart of the process and have thus
increased the yield of the VCM units. Their
development has continued on the new
oxychlorination lines in Santo Andre (Brazil)
and Zandvliet (Belgium). This innovation,
whose advantages are very tangible in terms
of maintenance and process optimization, is
today considered as a Solvay standard.
> Frank Vanrompuy; Anne-France Berger; Paul Degraeve;
Bernhard Hogenkamp; Patrick Joubert; Daniel Kinet;
Luigi Mestrone; Jean-Bernard Savoye; Norbert Schmitz;
Heinz-Theo Temath; Wolfgang Ziebarth.
> SBU VINYLS