What is Kemira’s vision and strategy?
Our vision is to be the first choice in chemistry for water intensive industries.
Kemira is a great product company with chemistry and selling of chemicals at the core of our business. We win with best suited products and tailored services that improve our customers product quality, process and resource efficiency. Our target is to grow above-the-market with an operative EBITDA margin of 15-18%.
Read more about Kemira’s strategy.
What drives growth in Kemira’s markets?
Changing demographics and growing environmental awareness are two most important trends driving growth of Kemira’s end markets.
Changing demographics
A growing middle-class population, particularly in Asia-Pacific, is expected to result in higher use of water, which will ultimately drive the demand for water treatment chemicals. Changing lifestyles and growth in e-commerce, partly driven by higher income per capita, will lead to higher need for packaging solutions globally. This will further boost the demand for pulp and paper chemicals; Kemira’s core expertise.
Growing environmental awareness
The overall sustainability trend, including more efficient use of natural resources and higher need for recyclable products, is expected to be beneficial for Kemira’s end-markets. Kemira’s solutions enable its customers to use resources, water included, more efficiently. One particular trend, the replacement of plastic packaging, is expected to drive growth of fiber-based packaging solutions. This in turn is expected to increase the demand for pulp and paper chemicals.
Global megatrends largely favor Kemira – sustainability becoming a key driver for the long term
In which businesses does Kemira operate?
Kemira is a global leader in sustainable chemical solutions for water intensive industries. We provide best suited products and expertise to improve our customers’ product quality, process and resource efficiency. We have two segments: Pulp & Paper and Industry & Water.
In Pulp & Paper, we provide the following solutions:
- bleaching chemicals: to purify and bleach pulp
- sizing and strength chemicals to improve the strength and hydrophobicity of packaging and paper
- various performance and functional chemicals to improve process and resource efficiency of paper and pulp mills
Pulp & Paper: Revenue split by customer type and by product category
In Industry & Water, we provide the following solutions:
- coagulants and polymers for wastewater and freshwater treatment for both municipal and industrial customers
- Oil & Gas: products to reduce friction in shale oil
- Oil & Gas: polymers to enable a better yield of existing conventional oil fields (Chemical Enhanced Oil Recovery)
- Oil & Gas: solutions for oil sands tailings treatment
Industry & Water: Revenue split by application type and by product category
Where does Kemira operate and what are the most important countries by sales?
The U.S. is the largest country in terms of sales and it accounted for 27% of revenue in 2022. Finland, the second largest country by sales, accounted for 15%.
Revenue split by country:
Is Kemira’s business seasonal or cyclical?
Overall, Kemira has a very resilient business model, which is not very prone to economic cycles. Kemira produces consumable chemicals that are used in customers’ processes, such as wastewater treatment or at pulp and paper mills. The shale part of the Oil & Gas business is cyclical following fluctuations in the oil price.
Kemira’s revenue typically is somewhat Q2 and Q3 weighted. The main driver behind this is Kemira’s Oil & Gas business, where revenue is typically Q2 and Q3 weighted due to the Northern Hemisphere summer, when oil related activities are the highest.
Revenue has a seasonal pattern
Who are Kemira’s main competitors?
Kemira’s competitors vary by segment and region.
| Pulp & Paper: |
Solenis (paper), Nouryon (pulp), Ecolab (paper), Kurita (paper) |
| Industry & Water: |
Feralco, Kronos, Chemtrade, USalco (coagulants) |
|
SNF, Solenis (polymers) |
|
Solvay (Oil & Gas) |
