AlzChem Group achieves record sales in Q1

We produce chemicals from relatively simple raw materials. We start with electricity, lime, and coal, and from that we have developed many, many products used by the steel industry as well as in fertilizer applications. We have also developed agricultural markets and nutrient or food markets in the direction of animal nutrition and even equipment, therefore Theresa Klemenz. At the end of the day, we are also represented in pharmaceuticals with pharmaceutical raw materials, and we have even arrived in the DNA test for Covid-19 tests. The company has significantly shaped some markets for decades. For example, the founder discovered the use of calcium cyanamide as a fertilizer about 120 years ago. But also in the recent past, they have brought some innovations to market. Well, you see, through [Ermittle?] we have been selling for over 110 years. That was actually the rationale; that was actually the first product of this company. We have now found an application: if we take the base product that is in fertilizer and put it through a slurry system and supplement it in the slurry system, we can control the bacteria there. That means the bacteria to some extent stop producing methane, the harmful methane. And with that we can make a clearly positive contribution to the environment. Methane is one of the most harmful gases for the environment and is about 20 to 25 times more harmful than CO2. If we used the entire capacity that we currently put directly into fertilizer via slurry systems for methane reduction, then we could save significantly more than one million, perhaps even two million tons of CO2, with the existing capacities.

That's true, because that is part of our DNA, sustainability. I can tell you, even my own DNA. In the time that I have been with the company, we have come so far that we hardly have to deposit any raw materials anymore. At the beginning we still had many, many deposits; these no longer exist today. So we have, or try to, reuse all raw materials again and no longer produce waste or reduce it. We are on a very, very good path, but we know we are still significantly further in the topic of sustainability. For example, we are also someone who produces CO2 on the one hand, but on the other hand we already today reuse a third of the CO2 we produce back into production. Yes, that means we need CO2 and are therefore in a sense also a CO2 sink. And when you think of our essential raw material, electricity, then we are positioned completely differently from other chemical companies. Other chemical companies depend on oil. Oil is still not sustainable and will never be sustainable. But electricity is becoming more and more sustainable, and the more electricity that is produced sustainably, the more sustainable AlzChem becomes.

Among other things, it depends on the DNA tests, which are still very, very high. The special economic situation actually only started in the second quarter last year with the Covid-19 topic properly. But we have grown across the board. Last year, for example, we saw that training activities decreased significantly. Fitness studios were closed everywhere in the world, and we also saw a slump in our creatine. Creatine is the purest creatine you can get worldwide, and we saw a significant reduction there. Now we are back on the path to success, if you will. We are very well utilized because people are now training at home and are also taking interesting supplements at home, and we also see a trend towards higher-quality products, specifically the purest creatine you can get. But not only creatine has grown; many other topics are also growing. We are also active in the area, for example, of epoxy resins for wind turbine blades. There we also see a clearly better trend going forward and clearly better sales. And last but not least, of course, the automotive side, everything to do with steel and automotive, is back and has grown significantly. Last year we saw declines of up to 50 percent. So the steel industry is doing very, very well again now. But not only the steel industry; we also have chemicals for airbags. If you drove here in a car today, there is a 50 to 60 percent probability that the airbag was equipped with our chemicals. And there we are also growing nicely forward. And what is very, very nice is that more and more airbags are being installed in cars, and we will therefore see additional growth in the future.