What was the motivation behind moving the paper chemical business to Spain?
P. Jany: That was a consequence of the moving of the textile business to Asia. Our paper chemicals production in Muttenz shares many infrastructure resources with textile production The reduction in textiles puts paper at a disadvantaged cost position, because it would be a small level of production inside a big plant. That would translate into a huge cost burden. Because we already produce paper chemicals in Spain, we can fully load that plant there. That’s a good point. Clariant has had several plants that have been running under capacity for some time now. P. Jany: A crisis will always accentuate the evolution, but we had idle capacity in 2008 as well, and that is why we began our Project GANO. The whole point is to find the remedy for structural deficits that have worked their way in over the years through growing too much capacity with too many plants, particularly small plants. We really need to concentrate on cost-effective plants that have a decent size at the right location. W
