Leverkusen – “Custom manufacturing means more than just manufacturing chemicals to fulfill customer orders. This is why Saltigo offers its customers a reliable, comprehensive service from a single source. Developing and optimizing procedures, including for demanding, multi-step synthesis sequences, are among our core competencies,” emphasizes Dr. Torsten Derr, Managing Director of Saltigo GmbH, Leverkusen, Germany. Saltigo, a wholly owned subsidiary of specialty chemicals company LANXESS, will also be represented this year at Chemspec Europe. The international trade fair for fine and specialty chemicals will be held in Cologne from June 20 to 21, 2018.

The company, which specializes in the exclusive synthesis of chemical active ingredients and intermediates, has a state-of-the art production base at its integrated facilities in Leverkusen and Dormagen, a broad technology portfolio, as well as many years of industry experience in agrochemistry, the pharmaceutical sector and the fine chemistry sector. “Just recently we significantly expanded our synthesis capacities in the Central Organics Pilot Plant (ZeTO) in Leverkusen with the commissioning of two production lines. This means that we are optimally equipped to meet increasing demand, particularly from the agrochemical industry,” explains Andreas Klein, Director of Marketing & Sales at Saltigo.

Reliable production according to the highest standards

Risk minimization is becoming more and more important due to globalized business relationships – this is true both for customers and for Saltigo. “Just recently many companies, including those in agrochemistry, have started to think that there are advantages to not rely completely on one Asian supplier, for example. This is particularly true when the supplier has to deal with increasing safety and environmental regulations from the local authorities at its various locations, which not infrequently has resulted in delays or even failure to deliver,” Derr explains. For Saltigo this means – despite weak demand in the agrochemical sector overall – an increase in requests and orders, particularly in this area. With well-trained, experienced and motivated employees, state-of-the-art plants, and outstanding infrastructure in the heart of Europe, Saltigo is extremely well equipped to meet all demands with regard to quality, delivery reliability, safety and environmental protection.

To increase cost efficiency, Saltigo is also investing in worldwide procurement management for some of the raw materials it requires. To prevent uncertain supplier situations, the company is pursuing a multi-track strategy. In addition to increased backward integration in its own plants, this also includes strengthening supplier relationships in essential industrial regions, specifically in Europe.

“In the mid and long term we assume that production costs, and therefore also the prices of raw materials from Asia, will no longer reach the low level of recent years. Quality, environmental protection and safety also cost money in Asia,” Derr emphasizes.

Expertise from the very beginning

Saltigo’s comprehensive range of services includes process development, but also support during registration and preparing documentation, which make it an interesting partner for numerous companies from the fine chemistry sector. Here the specific intention is to attract established, medium-size companies as customers – including from industries where outsourcing previously tended to play less of a role. “We can also provide assistance to start-ups, whose products promise attractive volume growth in the medium term, with process development and pilot production in the market,” Klein adds. The goal is to do a better job of developing the U.S. market and overall to utilize the company’s own broad technology base even more efficiently for an extremely wide range of synthesis tasks. Materials for organic electronics as well as fragrances and flavorings are two examples of attractive new fields of activity. “To realize these potentials even better in the future, we have added personnel to our Marketing & Sales team and made sure that commercial and chemical-technical expertise are balanced even in the early phase of initiating business,” Klein explains. Requests can be evaluated and answered even more quickly, while projects can be designed and realized even more flexibly and in a more customer-friendly way.


Saltigo GmbH is one of the leading providers in the area of custom synthesis. The company, which is part of the specialty chemicals group LANXESS, belongs to the Advanced Intermediates segment, which earned revenues of EUR 1.970 billion in the financial year 2017. Saltigo, with corporate headquarters in Leverkusen and production facilities in Leverkusen and Dormagen, has about 1,200 employees worldwide.