when competitors became a team when competitors became a team

ekaecho
The Eka Echo is a staff magazine
for all employees within the Eka
Chemicals group. It is produced by
the Communications department
at Eka Chemicals, Sweden. The
magazine in published in English
and Swedish, four times a year.
EDITOR
Anne-Cathrine Hartmann
anne-cathrine.hartmann@eka.com
Telephone: +46 31-58 71 22
PUBLISHER
Erik Widén, communications
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EDITORIAL STAFF
Lene Schack (lene.schack@eka.com),
Kristina Fagerholm (kristina.fagerholm@eka.com),
Adela Guerrera
(adela.guerrera@eka.com), Nancy
Nilsson (nancy.nilsson@eka.com),
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ART & LAYOUT
Williams information ab
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Cover picture:
Plant managers
Jean Goyette
and Cynthia
Martin,
Canada.
Photo: Monica
Rossing.
Latest date for sending material
to Eka Echo no 5 is 19 November,
2007.
ADDRESS
Eka Echo
SE-445 80 Bohus, Sweden
Fax: +46 31 15 62 12
ISSN: 0345-2840
2 ekaecho | # 4 2007
ekaecho
WHEN WHEN COMPETITORS
COMPETITORS
BECAME BECAME A A TEAM TEAM
f CURRENCY FLUCTUATIONS AND PROFITS f EKA BUILD FOR
GROWTH IN BRAZIL f GIVE STUDENTS DEGREE PROJECTS!
an Akzo Nobel company
T H E E K A C H E M I C A L S S T A F F M A G A Z I N E # 4/2007
EDITORIAL
Safety important to result
DEVELOPMENT IS TAKING large strides towards
a new Akzo Nobel. After the sale of
pharmaceuticals and the planned acquisition
of ICI, once the deal has been realized, we will
be part of an entirely new group, compared to the
Akzo Nobel of a few years ago. We shall be by far
the biggest paint producers in the world and have
fivel growth areas occupying good positions within
chemicals. Eka Chemicals is one of these and will
have considerable opportunities for development
within the new and stronger Akzo Nobel.
During the first six months of the year profits were
good and sales increased by 6%, despite hydrogen
peroxide sales in North America being entered in
our OCI joint venture. The second half of the year
does not look as stable, although so far the economic
situation has been favorable, and this applies to
our markets too, with high production and high capacity
utilization. As earlier, most growth in pulp and
paper is taking place in Asia and South America. We
are happy to see we are acquiring large parts of this
growth, and our new contracts with accompanying
investment plans at both Três Lagoas and Jundiai in
Brazil are further evidence of this. Moreover, our
new plant in south China has rapidly increased its
capacity utilization.
REVENUES HAVE INCREASED, partly owing to success
in raising prices that have been low for a long
time. We have succeeded in compensating, to a certain
extent, for the major power costs rises, especially
in the Nordic countries, which represent a considerable
drawback for chlorate production. Nordic
power prices are presently low on the spot market,
but company power supply is based on longer contracts
and these have not benefited from any price
drop. Nor are we witness to any decisive political
measures that could improve the energy situation in
Europe in the future. Increased costs for emission allowances
in Europe, in the wake of the climate debate,
could well contribute to even higher power
supply costs.
Two industrial accidents occurred during the first
half of the year, resulting in lost working hours, and
two more have since occurred. This means we have
succeeded in cutting back LTIs to the 2007 target,
but we still have some way to go before we reach
zero accidents; a figure many work sites have been
demonstrating is a feasible target and have been doing
so for long time. The number of reported injuries
is still high.. On the one hand this is good, because it
provides a way to countermeasure incidents and
prevent these from causing new injuries. On the other
hand it is still most important to eliminate injuries
altogether.
OUR PROGRAM FOR BEHAVIOR based safety, BBS,
has now been fully implemented at eight plants.
Others are working on it. This work must be given
high priority. Once again I wish to emphasize there is
no contradiction in striving for both high safety and
high productivity. On the contrary, it has been found
that plants with the best safety statistics and the
best orderliness also return the highest productivity.
Our most important goal is that no-one should be injured
at work. If this results in better orderliness at
our work sites and increases productivity, it will also
help us to achieve an even better result for the second
half of 2007.
JAN SVÄRD
President
� Eka Chemicals, with 2,900 employees in 30 countries, is a business unit within Akzo Nobel. Turnover
2006 amounted to 963 mEUR. Eka Chemicals is a leading supplier of bleaching chemicals, paper chemicals
and systems to the pulp and paper industry throughout the world, and supplies certain special
chemicals to the pharmaceuticals industry, water treatment, the electronics industry etc. www.eka.com