August/September Business View Magazine

38 39 from the raw material to entire components, SGL serves customers through a global sales network and state-of-the-art production sites in Europe, North America, and Asia. Ken Mannon, President of SGL Carbon LLC in North America, has been with the company since it was cre- ated over 30 years ago, and knows well the backstory. “SGL Carbon was formed in 1992 when Great Lakes Carbon and SIGRI GmbH in North America merged their graphite operations into a new company called SIGRI Great Lakes Carbon. A year later, they acquired Pechiney Grafite of France and that formed the basis of what is now SGL Carbon and, specifically, SGL Carbon LLC here in North America.” Various acquisitions and divestitures occurred over the years. In 1995, a machining specialty shop belonging to another graphite competitor in St. Mary’s, Pennsylvania was acquired; and in 1996/97, SGL acquired a subsidiary in California –Hitco Carbon Composites. Both are still part of the portfolio. “Today, we’ve got eight operating sites in the U.S. and the Charlotte office - so nine sites in total,” says Mannon. “The company was formed as a result of the economic conditions of the graphite electrodes marketplace,” he continues. “The core product at the time was graphite electrodes, which were sold into electric arc, steel mini-mills. And that was the driving force of the business for many years. However, in 2017 we divested our former core business unit, Performance Products, includ- ing the graphite electrodes business.We wanted SGL CARBON LLC to exit the this cyclical commodity market and focus on more high-growth and innovative indus- tries. Our remaining two business units Graphite Materials & Systems (GMS) and Composites – Fibers & Materials (CFM) drive the developments in the megatrends of mobility, energy, and digiti- zation.” Andreas Wuellner, Head of the business unit, Composites –Fibers and Materials, continues the story: “When we acquired Hitco, we tried to strengthen our composites activities in the U.S., supplying the aerospace industry from the Garde- na, California facility. That was the first step into composites in the U.S. The second step was in 2010, when we set up a joint venture with BMW to supply each of their new vehicles that were going to be manufactured in Germany, and we had to set up a global supply chain for this.We selected Moses Lake,Washington for the carbon fiber manufacturing site because of the avail- ability of renewable energy and a great workforce.”At the end of 2017, the compa- ny announced its decision to acquire BMW Group’s minority interest in the joint venture, with SGL Automotive Carbon Fibers (SGL ACF) to become the sole owner. SGL has about 700 employees in North Amer- ica, about 17 percent of the company’s global ANDREAS WUELLNER KEN MANNON PRESIDENT