At the end of 2023, Syensqo started trading as an independent company, following the spin-off from Solvay. What businesses did Syensqo inherit?

Syensqo inherited the specialties business of Solvay, which represented about 60% of revenue. While Solvay retained the soda ash, peroxides, silica, and solvents businesses, everything else moved to Syensqo – including specialty polymers, composite materials, solutions for the oil and gas industry, as well as surfactants for the home and personal care markets. 

With a diverse portfolio across multiple verticals, what are the dominant demand trends you observe in 2024?

Syensqo has five key verticals, each with a life of its own, so we are directly impacted by the dynamics pertaining to these segments. Automotive is the biggest industry we support, followed by consumer goods, aerospace, food, and electronics. On top of this, we offer intermediate products for industrial applications, which represent almost a third of our global sales. Performance is mixed across the board. For the automotive sector, we supply the EV market, which is on the rise, although 2023 sales were tempered off by the removal of government subsidies. Aerospace is having a big turnaround moment, after suffering terribly during the pandemic. The agro sector is going through a low cycle, with disruptions emanating from Ukraine putting pressure on global markets, but food production is always poised to grow long-term. Finally, the personal care and home care markets are a big focus, especially for bio-based solutions produced through nature replicating processes such as fermentation.

Could you comment on the chemical industry’s legitimization journey and the public & regulatory pressures it faces today, especially when it comes to sustainability?

The chemical industry carries an unfortunate load from the past and continues to be subjected to scrutiny, sometimes necessary, other times undeserved. It is essential to work together with the authorities to alter the industry’s perspective. Public opinion can sway to the extreme and the irrational, so we need to have open conversations with both the public and the regulators to address existing issues.

One of the areas that the public pays the most attention to is the use of carcinogenic products or other substances of concern, such as PFAs (Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances), identified as environmental pollutants and potentially harmful to human health. Regulators are restricting the use of some of these products and the industry is working hard to replace those few proven to be harmful. Global warming is another area that everyone is aware of. What fewer people understand is the crucial role that the chemical industry has in helping multiple industries decarbonize, through innovative solutions.

We can compare the current multi-folded challenge of global warming with the ozone layer destruction that came into foresight in the 1970s and 1980s. Albeit global warming is a much greater issue in terms of the volume of GHG that needs to be cut down to reach neutrality, the ozone layer hole was an imminent threat to humankind; it has now been proven that the ozone layer is recovering. The Protocol of Montreal identified over 100 individual ODPs (ozone-depleting materials), some of which also have a global warming impact. If history is to show us something, is that humanity is capable of tackling serious challenges as long as we become conscious of the threat and act upon it. 

How is Syensqo aligning with global net-zero goals?

Since 2007, Solvay has established a methodology to assess the sustainability profile of our products, taking into account everything from raw materials to end-users. By 2018, all our products, whether brought in through M&A or developed in-house, were measured following this cradle-to-grave guide. As Syensqo, we continue with this legacy. Syensqo has also revised its targets, committing to become carbon-neutral by 2040, rather than 2050, and to achieve 18% of our sales from fully circular solutions by 2030.

Could you exemplify how Syensqo’s products can have a positive impact on value chain emission reductions?

Our products play a huge role in helping our customers decarbonize. For example, our high-tech lightweight composite materials for the aerospace industry allow the next generation of airplanes to be much lighter and more durable, leading to fuel consumption savings of as high as 20%.