How has HELM Asia performed in the past year?

2021 was one of the best financial years for HELM AG, as well as for HELM Asia. Our strategic set-up marked by long-term relationships and an expansive global reach with a presence in 30 countries allowed HELM to benefit from both higher chemical prices and strong demand in our key markets. 

How is HELM positioning itself across both commodities and performance chemicals?

HELM is already a leader in products like methanol, ethylene glycols, acetyls, and other derivatives. While leveraging our core expertise in marketing and distributing large-volume petrochemicals at a global scale, we also come to the market with customized solutions further down the chemicals value chain. Surfactants would be a case in point. As we start approaching the downstream with more intermediates and performance chemicals, our exposure to end-use sectors increases. Analyzing current megatrends, we identified five priority industry segments that HELM is strategically focused on: automotive, electronics, construction, care chemicals, and, an emerging but powerful growing segment, bio-based materials. With our extensive network and intimate knowledge of each local market, HELM enables chemical producers to access cost-competitive raw materials supplies. Within Asia, HELM operates across five sub-regions: China, Korea, India, Southeast Asia, and Japan. 

Could you reflect more closely on the key growth segments observed?

Global and regional supply chains have a significant impact on supply-demand fundamentals; whereas demand is poised to stay relatively stable, supply disruptions in logistics, freight and production downtime continue to add pressure on chemical markets. In some industries, technology is a primary driver: For example, the move towards electrification in the automotive industry is creating an influx of demand for battery materials and lightweight materials, which have a multi-geography value chain span. Another area where we expect to witness growing demand is bio-based and renewable products which contribute to climate protection, as societal awareness around these issues augments. 

Can you share with our audience HELM’s recent commercial agreements with Leverton Lithium Chemicals and Cargill? How are these growing your sustainability portfolio?

HELM is proactively looking for opportunities to introduce products designed with a sustainability mindset and that make a real difference. HELM entered a JV with Cargill to build a US$300 million commercial-scale facility to produce renewable butanediol (BDO) from fermented plant-based sugars. The bio-intermediate product, named QIRA, is a 1,4-BDO that saves up to 93% of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) during production compared to a conventional BDO. The groundbreaking product will provide the apparel, automotive, electronics and packaging industries with the chance to reduce their environmental footprint without compromising quality or manufacturing processes. HELM will be using its global network to market the products globally, including in Asia, where we have already started pre-marketing activities.

Besides bio-based products that circumvent the dependence on fossil fuels as feedstocks, equally important to us is to address products that support circularity and carbon reduction goals – like water treatment agents or chemicals used in the battery space. HELM is excited to join forces with Leverton Lithium to scale up battery grade lithium chemicals in Europe, a move that aligns with our greater strategy of becoming an integral part of the battery value chain. We feel the two companies are a natural fit and share a common understanding and vision for the future. The lithium industry is developing rapidly, and we are delighted to see our company continues to grow and gain more relevance in the energy storage space. 

What are your key objectives for 2022-2023?

As we move forward, our key objective is to combine our continued developments towards further downstream chemicals in our core industries of focus with our sustainability agenda, which is underpinned by three core pillars: circular economy solutions, decarbonization, and bio-based chemicals. For HELM, Asia is and remains an economic powerhouse and a very valuable growth region where we plan to expand both organically and inorganically. We are already in advanced discussions to invest in a chemical player active in Malaysia and Singapore and that shares our values, including our attention to sustainability, but also understands our business and our ethos as a family business with a global presence. This would be an exciting milestone to grow our Asian portfolio and build on our customer networks. We hope to publicly announce the planned acquisition in the second half of 2022.