Item 1. Business
ITEM 1. BUSINESS.
Ecovyst Inc. (“Ecovyst” or the “Company”), formerly PQ Group Holdings Inc. (“PQ Group Holdings”) was incorporated in Delaware on August 7, 2015. We trace our roots to the late 1800’s with our first sulfuric acid plant and the beginning of our oldest customer relationship. Our business has a history of innovation, enabling environmental improvements in areas such as fuel efficiency, sustainable fuels and the abatement of emissions from heavy-duty diesel engines, while improving the sustainability of our planet. On May 4, 2016, we consummated a series of transactions (the “Business Combination”) to reorganize and combine the then-existing businesses with Eco Services Operations LLC under a new holdings company, then called PQ Group Holdings. On October 3, 2017, we completed our initial public offering (“IPO”).
On December 14, 2020, we completed the sale of our Performance Materials business to Potters Buyer, LLC, an affiliate of The Jordan Company, L.P. Effective on August 1, 2021, we completed the sale of our Performance Chemicals business to Sparta Aggregator L.P., a partnership with Koch Minerals & Trading, LLC and Cerberus Capital Management, L.P. The results of operations, financial condition, and cash flows for the Performance Materials and Performance Chemicals businesses are presented herein as discontinued operations for the 2022 and 2021 periods presented. Refer to Note 4 to our consolidated financial statements for additional information.
Our common stock is listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the stock ticker “ECVT”. On August 1, 2021, we changed our name from “PQ Group Holdings Inc.” to “Ecovyst Inc.,” changed the ticker symbol of our common stock listed on the New York Stock Exchange from “PQG” to “ECVT”. On November 28, 2023, the Company renamed the “Catalyst Technologies” segment to "Advanced Materials & Catalysts”. Unless the context otherwise indicates, the terms “Ecovyst Inc.,” “we,” “us,” “our,” or the “Company” mean Ecovyst Inc. and our subsidiaries.
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Our Company
We are a leading integrated and innovative global provider of advanced materials, specialty catalysts and services. We believe that our products and services contribute to improving the sustainability of the environment. Our value-added products seek to address global demand trends that are often either the subject of significant environmental and safety regulations or are driven by consumer preferences for more sustainable products, which provides us with high-margin growth opportunities. We believe that our products contribute to lower emissions and cleaner air, higher fuel efficiency and cleaner fuels, and key enablers to advance the global transition to clean energy. Specifically, our products and solutions help companies in the production of sustainable fuels and help to produce vehicles with improved fuel efficiency and cleaner emissions.
We believe we are a leader in each of our business segments, holding what we estimate to be a number one or number two supply share position for products that generated more than 90% of our 2023 sales. We believe that our global footprint and efficient network of strategically located manufacturing facilities provide us with a strong competitive advantage in serving our customers both regionally as well as globally.
Our products typically constitute a small portion of our customers’ overall end-product costs, yet are critical to product performance. We believe, with our long history of customer partnerships and our reputation for providing reliable, quality of products and solutions, our products deliver significant value to our customers, as demonstrated by our profit margins.
We have a long track record of innovation that is reflected in our technical and production expertise in silica, zeolites and catalyst technologies.
We are highly diversified by business, geography and end use. In 2023, the majority of our sales were for applications that have historically had relatively predictable, consistent demand patterns driven by consumption or frequent replacement cycles.
As a result of our competitive strengths, we have generally maintained stable margins through changing macro economic cycles.
In 2023, we served global customers across many end uses and as of December 31, 2023, operated out of ten strategically located manufacturing facilities.
Our Strategy
We intend to capitalize on our strong business fundamentals, sustainability driven innovation and customer partnerships to grow sales, maintain high margins, deploy capital efficiently and generate consistent free cash flow in order to create shareholder value. We believe that our long history of operational excellence and proven reliability, technology leadership, strong customer relationships, innovation track record and consistent business execution developed from our industry experience positions us well to execute our business strategy.
Our Industry
Our industry is characterized by a strong commitment to innovate and to develop enhanced performance and solutions that improve environmental, health and sustainability. In turn, this drives Ecovyst to constantly develop new products and the need to support our customers with new product innovation and technical services. Our innovation is strongly focused on customer partnerships. We believe a key capability is our ability to go from laboratory to pilot to full scale production with both the speed and consistency required for our customers’ demand for our products.
Products that we sell to our customers are often high value-add, even when they represent a small portion of the overall end product costs, and we believe success can be achieved by helping customers improve their product performance, value and quality. We believe many of the end uses that we serve are generally more resilient to economic cycles, minimizing extreme fluctuations in demand. In addition, many products have relatively high switching costs, including the risk of quality failures, thus making it more beneficial for customers to work with incumbent producers. In addition, the capital cost to expand existing capacity is typically significantly less than the capital cost necessary to build a new plant. We believe the combination of attractive operating margins, growing end uses and generally predictable maintenance capital expenditure requirements improves our ability to generate attractive cash flows.
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Our Product End Uses
The table below summarizes our key end use applications and products, as well as the significant growth drivers in those applications.
Key End Uses Significant Growth Drivers Key Products
Clean Fuels, Emission Control & Other • Global regulatory requirements to: • Refining hydrocracking catalysts
• Reduce sulfur from diesel and gasoline • Emission control catalyst supports
• Remove nitrogen oxides from tailpipe emissions • Catalyst supports used in the production of sustainable fuels such as renewable diesel
• Growing demand for sustainable fuels • Catalyst used in the production of sustainable aviation fuels
• Growing demand for ex-situ catalyst activation to support traditional and sustainability fuels production • Catalyst activation
• Improve lubricant characteristics to improve fuel efficiencies • Aluminum sulfate solution
• Municipal and industrial water treatment • Ammonium bisulfite solution
Polyethylene, Polymers & Engineered Plastics • Demand for high-density polyethylene used for strengthening and light weighting components • Catalysts for high-density polyethylene and chemicals syntheses
• Demand for durable packaging • Antiblock for film packaging
• Growing demand for recycling of materials • Catalyst for advanced recycling
Regeneration and Treatment Services • Increase gasoline octane in order to improve fuel efficiency while lowering vapor pressure and sulfur to regulated levels • Sulfuric acid regeneration services
• High industry utilization • Treatment services
• Growing demand for applications in hazardous and non-hazardous waste
Industrial, Mining & Automotive • Demand for metals and minerals for low carbon technologies and infrastructure • Sulfuric acid for mining
• Demand for a wide range of products including construction materials, auto, consumer goods, and chemicals • Sulfur derivatives for industrial production
• Recovery in global oil drilling/U.S. copper production • Sulfur derivatives for nylon production
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December 31, 2023 December 31, 2022 December 31, 2021
Key End Uses Sales % of Sales Zeolyst JV Sales (1)
% of Zeolyst JV sales (2)
Sales % of Sales Zeolyst JV Sales (1)
% of Zeolyst JV sales (2)
Sales % of Sales Zeolyst JV Sales (1)
% of Zeolyst JV sales (2)
Clean Fuels, Emission Control & Other
Ecovyst $ 29.9 4.0 % $ — — % $ 29.0 4.0 % $ — — % $ 25.7 4.0 % $ — — %
Zeolyst Catalyst — — % 127.0 81.0 % — — % 103.4 78.0 % — — % 113.8 87.0 %
Polyethylene, Polymers & Engineered Plastics
Ecovyst $ 106.2 15.0 % $ — — % $ 117.7 14.0 % $ — — % $ 110.7 18.0 % $ — — %
Zeolyst Catalyst — — % 29.5 19.0 % — — % 29.2 22.0 % — — % 17.5 13.0 %
Regeneration and Treatment Services
Ecovyst $ 354.6 52.0 % $ — — % $ 342.6 42.0 % $ — — % $ 262.0 43.0 % $ — — %
Zeolyst Catalyst — — % — — % — — % — — % — — % — — %
Industrial, Mining & Automotive
Ecovyst $ 200.4 29.0 % $ — — % $ 330.9 40.0 % $ — — % $ 212.8 35.0 % $ — — %
Zeolyst Catalyst — — % — — % — — % — — % — — % — — %
Total $ 691.1 $ 156.5 $ 820.2 $ 132.6 $ 611.2 $ 131.3
(1) Represents 50% of the Zeolyst Joint Venture (the “Zeolyst Joint Venture” or “Zeolyst JV”) sales for each of the years ended December 31, 2023, 2022, and 2021, respectively. Refer to “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Basis of Presentation” for a description of the treatment of the Zeolyst JV in our consolidated financial information.
(2) Percentage calculations are based on $156.5 million, $132.6 million and $131.3 million of sales attributable to the Zeolyst Joint Venture, which represents 50% of its total sales for each of the years ended December 31, 2023, 2022 and 2021, respectively.
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Competitive Business Strengths
Favorable Secular Growth Trends Across the Portfolio
We focus on serving end use applications where we believe our competencies can create value adding solutions and where significant growth potential exists. Our products and services address our customers’ needs, which are typically driven globally by regulatory requirements, consumer preferences or sustainability trends. We believe that our products and services incorporate innovative environmental, sustainability and safety solutions to address evolving customer demands, examples of which include the following:
• Increased use of polyethylene-based plastics as a substitute for heavier and less versatile materials and increasing consumption of plastics is driving increased global demand for polyethylene production and also capacity expansions. Further, we are seeing a shift towards silica-based technology, which we believe will drive growth for our Advanced Silicas product group within our Advanced Materials & Catalysts segment.
• Acceleration of global commitments to increase the recycling of plastics. Within our Zeolyst Joint Venture, our zeolite-based catalysts help improve the efficiency of thermal pyrolysis. We are partnering with technology licensors to help enable the advanced recycling of plastics.
• The decarbonization of heavy-duty trucking and aviation industries by using sustainability fuels. Our Zeolyst Joint Venture leverages our knowledge of lubricant dewaxing to develop products that efficiently dewax renewable diesel. Dewaxing is a process where longer chain hydrocarbons are broken down into chain lengths that remain liquid at colder temperatures allowing fuel flow in trucks during colder temperatures. Legislative drivers and financial incentives are leading to rapid capacity builds at our customers, driving demand for our products. For the production of sustainable aviation fuel, our specialty zeolites are used in the hydrocracking and dewaxing steps, enabling the fuel quality required for sustainable aviation fuel to be produced. In addition, some manufacturing processes involve converting alcohol into jet fuel where our zeolites catalyze the building or oligomerization of molecules into longer chains that more efficiently combust to generate power.
• Light- and heavy-duty diesel engines are subject to a broad set of regulatory requirements and increasingly strict emission standards. We believe these trends present global opportunities for the Zeolyst Joint Venture to support our customers in meeting these standards through our sales of emission control catalysts. Legislative efforts continue to reduce acceptable emission profiles, including a focus on cold start conditions, which we believe create positive opportunities for zeolite-based technologies along with other solutions that customers benchmark to develop their preferred solution.
We believe that stringent fuel efficiency standards that spur the use of high compression engines requiring higher-octane gasoline and continued stringent regulatory requirements for gasoline will continue to encourage strong alkylate production at our refining customers. We believe that our Ecoservices segment is well positioned to benefit from any related growth in demand for alkylate.
We also believe we have opportunities to displace other less environmentally friendly materials for industrial and consumer good applications through our business segments. Our Ecoservices segment is the largest North American recycler of sulfuric acid and one of the largest consumers of refinery by-products of sulfur, enabling them to be converted to other applications.
Leading Supply Positions
We believe that we maintain a leading supply position for certain products sold within each of our segments, holding what we estimate to be the number one or two supply share position in 2023 for products that generated more than 90% of our sales. We believe that our global footprint and efficient network of strategically located manufacturing facilities provides us with a strong competitive advantage in serving our customers both globally and regionally, and that it would be costly for our competitors to replicate our network.
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In our Advanced Materials & Catalysts segment, we primarily compete on a global basis. We are a leading supplier of zeolites used for catalysts that support the production of sustainable fuels, zeolite-based catalyst used to remove sulfur in the refinery hydrocracking process and emission control catalysts used in the heavy- and light-duty diesel industries to reduce nitrogen oxides emissions. We are a global supplier of silicas-based advanced materials and supports for polyethylene manufacturers and custom catalyst applications, including catalyst used to produce methyl methacrylate (“MMA”), bio-butadiene and bio-catalysis used to immobilize enzymes onto silica supports.
Innovation Track Record
We believe a key competitive advantage is derived from our depth of expertise in creating and modifying advanced materials based on silica and zeolite technologies. We believe we capture value through customer collaboration. We have the ability to tailor and scale custom advanced materials to meet changing demands and to provide technical support for large scale commercialization. Many of our products require close customer collaboration to address constantly evolving customer application challenges. Given the long lead-time required for product development and commercialization, we work closely and build long-term relationships with our customers. In many cases, our relationships have spanned decades given our ability to meet customized specifications and performance characteristics while also maintaining strict quality standards.
These long-term relationships have allowed us to innovate together with our customers to meet evolving demands. For example, we have developed zeolite-based catalysts that are effective and efficient at reducing pollutants from heavy- and light-duty diesel engines, enabling our customers to meet increasingly stringent vehicle emission standards worldwide. We manufacture zeolite-based advanced materials used in the production of sustainable fuels to help advance the global transition to clean energy and to enable advanced recycling of plastics through the catalyzed thermal pyrolysis of plastic wastes. Our proprietary silica-based advanced materials have enabled development of a high strength high-density polyethylene (“HDPE”) resin that is used for making lightweight plastic gasoline tanks for automobiles and enables everyday items such as plastic containers and piping used to construct new buildings. In addition, we participate in bio-catalysis where our advanced silica-based materials are used to immobilize enzymes and to enable CO 2 capture and storage.
Long-Term, High Quality Customer Relationships
We collaborate with leading multinational companies that often seek global solutions. Our customers include large industrial companies such as ExxonMobil, and global catalyst producers such as UOP and Grace. We also supply catalysts to leading chemical and petrochemical producers such Dow Chemical, Mitsubishi Chemical, LyondellBasell, CP Chemicals, Valero, Motiva, Saudi Aramco and Shell. We have long-term relationships with our top ten customers, based on 2023 sales, that average more than 50 years. In addition, our customer base is diversified, with our top ten customers in 2023 representing approximately 60% of our sales for the year ended December 31, 2023, and one customer representing 13% or $91.5 million of our sales in both our Ecoservices and Advanced Materials & Catalysts businesses during this period.
Secured Contractual Pass-through of Raw Material Costs Support Stable Margins
We have been able to mitigate the impact of raw material or energy price volatility using a variety of mechanisms, including raw material cost pass-through mechanisms in our sale contracts and other adjustment provisions. Most of our Ecoservices contracts feature minimum volume protection and/or quarterly price adjustments for items such as commodity inputs, labor, the Chemical Engineering Plant Cost Index and natural gas. In 2023, approximately 80% of our Ecoservices segment sales were sold under contracts that included some form of raw material pass-through clause. These price adjustments generally reflect our Ecoservices actual cost structure in producing sulfuric acid, and tend to provide us with some protection against volatility in labor, fixed costs and raw material pricing. Freight expenses are generally passed through directly to customers.
Our products are produced from readily available raw materials. We also use natural gas in our manufacturing process where our North American facilities have benefited from the plentiful supplies of shale gas. In addition, we have long-term contracts and relationships with many of our key raw material suppliers across all of our business segments.
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Long-Term Customer Contracts Enhance Sales Predictability and Stability
We partner with many of our customers under long-term contract agreements, 100% requirement arrangements and/or specified products for certain license production processes. In our Ecoservices segment, approximately 50% of our production capacity serve customers with staggered multi-year commitment contracts with potential for value pricing resets and cost pass-through for our regeneration services product line that enhances sales and margin predictability and stability. Excluding contracts with automatic evergreen provisions, approximately 20% of our sulfuric acid volume for the year ended December 31, 2023 was under contracts expiring at the end of 2024 or beyond.
In our Advanced Materials & Catalysts segment, we are either the sole or dual supplier to key global customers under various term agreements up to 10 years for polyethylene catalysts and advanced silicas supports. Further, we have a multi-year supply agreement for MMA catalyst with a leading global producer. In our Zeolyst Joint Venture, where we supply catalysts and zeolite powders for refining, sustainable fuels, and emission controls applications, we operate with a mix of evergreen and various term contracts depending on the product customization. These terms, in line with industry standards, provide us with flexibility in satisfying customers.
Strategic and Differentiated Manufacturing Know-how and Supply Chain Global Network
Ecoservices’ predecessor company, Stauffer Chemical, was a leader in pioneering the current sulfuric acid regeneration technology in the 1940s. Since then, we have leveraged our process technology expertise and ability to deliver our products by barge, rail, truck and pipeline to become the largest sulfuric acid regenerator in North America and a leading North American producer of high quality virgin sulfuric acid. Ecoservices has also applied its expert knowledge in thermal decomposition to provide treatment services for hazardous/non-hazardous wastes, and most recently activate catalysts with our patented Chem 32, LLC (“Chem32”) technology acquired in March 2021.
Our Advanced Materials & Catalysts product development and manufacturing technology is customized based on deep silica and zeolite-based advanced material science know-how. Our R&D centers seek to develop fit for purpose catalysts with customers. We believe we have a differentiated capability to develop such products and manufacture them consistently.
Stable Margins and Cash Flow Generation Across Changing Macroeconomic Cycles
The secular trends supporting many of our business segments has allowed us to maintain stable margins while continuing to grow in different macroeconomic environments. We believe that the stability of our margins and cash flows is also aided by long-term sale contracts and material cost pass-through. Our ability to enter into favorable contracts and terms with customers is driven by our long history of collaborative relationships and track record of providing value-added products and services. We believe that our value-added products and services have proven to be critical to the performance of our customers’ products and typically represent only a small portion of our customers’ overall end-product costs.
We believe our strong commercial contact structure enables our businesses to generate strong operating cash flow. In addition, our cash flow generation has been driven, in part, by lower debt levels, our disciplined capital investment, as well as tax attributes that provide us with cash flow benefits. As of December 31, 2023, we had $206.9 million of tax deductible intangibles and goodwill with respect to Eco Services Operations LLC, which provides us with cash tax savings as we generate taxable income.
Our Business Segments
We are a leading integrated and innovative global provider of advanced materials, specialty catalysts and services. We believe that our products and services contribute to improving the sustainability of the environment. We conduct operations through two reporting segments: (1) Ecoservices and (2) Advanced Materials & Catalysts (including our 50% interest in the Zeolyst Joint Venture).
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The table below summarizes certain information regarding our two reporting segments for the year ended December 31, 2023.
Year ended December 31, 2023
Segments and Product Groups Sales Zeolyst
Joint Venture Sales (1)
Net Income Adjusted EBITDA (1)
% of Total Adjusted EBITDA (1)(2)
(in millions, except percentages)
Ecoservices $ 584.8 $ — $ 200.0 70.9 %
Advanced Materials & Catalysts 106.3 — 81.9 29.1 %
Zeolite Catalyst — 156.5
Subtotal $ 691.1 $ 156.5
Corporate (22.0)
Total $ 691.1 $ 156.5 $ 71.2 $ 259.9 100.0 %
(1) Represents 50% of the Zeolyst Joint Venture (the “Zeolyst Joint Venture” or “Zeolyst JV”) sales for the year ended December 31, 2023. The Adjusted EBITDA of our Advanced Materials & Catalysts segment includes our 50% portion of the Adjusted EBITDA of our Zeolyst JV. Refer to “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Basis of Presentation” for a description of the treatment of the Zeolyst Joint Venture in our consolidated financial information. Refer to “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Key Performance Indicators” for discussion of our use of non-GAAP financial measures and reconciliations.
(2) Percentage calculations exclude $22.0 million in corporate expenses.
Ecoservices
Our Ecoservices segment is a leading provider of sulfuric acid recycling (“Regeneration Services”) and end-to-end logistics to North American refineries to support the production of alkylate, a high value gasoline blending component required for meeting gasoline specifications and producing premium grade fuel. We are also a leading North American producer of on-purpose virgin sulfuric acid for water treatment, mining, and industrial applications (“Virgin Sulfuric Acid”). We provide treatment services for hazardous/non-hazardous industrial wastes (“Treatment Services”) and with the acquisition of Chem32 in March 2021, we are also a leader in ex-situ sulfiding and pre-activation for hydro-processing catalysts, which are used in the production of traditional and sustainable fuels. By providing regeneration services, as well as purchasing by-product sulfur from customers for use in manufacturing virgin sulfuric acid, we believe that we provide our refining customers with a complete solution for their sulfuric acid needs.
We believe recent trends for increased alkylate production are being driven by: rising demand for premium gasoline used in smaller, more efficient turbocharged engines, which requires an alkylate content of approximately 40%-45%, as compared to the approximately 12%-13% alkylate content in regular gasoline; the need for more alkylate to meet the minimum octane ratings in regular gasoline following the continued significant share growth of shale oil refining in the U.S.; the full implementation of Tier 3 gasoline sulfur standards in the United States enacted in 2020, which requires the blending of additional low sulfur high octane gasoline components such as alkylate; and rising gasoline exports, which gasoline generally contains no ethanol and generally requires more alkylate to replace the missing ethanol in order to meet minimum octane requirements in the destination countries.
Our Ecoservices segment is mostly regional due to shipping costs and our customer integration requirements. Our network of facilities is concentrated in the Gulf Coast and the state of California, where approximately 65% of the United States refining capacity is located. We believe that the strategic locations of our plants in these key refining regions contribute to our efficient supply chain networks with our customers, including in some cases captive pipelines connecting us to our refinery customers. Additionally, product can be shipped to our customers by barge, rail and truck.
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Primary Product Groups
Regeneration Services serves a critical need for refining customers. Sulfuric acid serves as a catalyst in the alkylation process. The resulting spent sulfuric acid needs to be regenerated or recycled, which is no longer a core competency of most refiners. Since storage space for fresh and spent sulfuric acid is typically limited, and the cost to refineries of interruption to their alkylation units would be significant, refineries seek to have a continuous and reliable source of supply for sulfuric acid regeneration services.
Our end-to-end regeneration service offering takes the spent acid from the refinery, through our network of plants and transportation systems, and recycles the sulfuric acid into high strength fresh sulfuric acid for reuse in the alkylation process. Because of the number and strategic locations of our plants, and the breadth of our transportation logistics, we believe we bring the highest reliability and flexibility to our refining customers, allowing them to focus on their core competency by optimizing their alkylation capacity.
Virgin Sulfuric Acid is created either through the incinerating sulfur in furnaces, or as a by-product of other industrial processes, primarily the smelting of copper and other base metals. Our sulfur-derived, high quality virgin sulfuric acid products supply a diverse set of end uses. Sulfur derived acid is generally considered to be of higher purity and quality than smelter-produced acid and, as a result, smelter-produced acid is not suitable for some industrial users including several of our larger customers who require higher quality and differentiated sulfuric acid products, such as super-saturated sulfuric acid (oleum). Virgin Sulfuric Acid is produced at all of our facilities utilizing the same production equipment as our regeneration services.
Our Treatment Services business is a niche offering providing a thermal destruction solution for the management of bulk quantities of hazardous and non-hazardous by-products, co-products and waste materials. We specialize in handling sulfur-bearing materials, acidic materials, high-temperature molten materials and other hard to handle liquids. Our process provides a beneficial reuse alternative to traditional disposal by capturing the energy value and sulfur content of these materials, supplementing our processes, and offsetting the use of virgin raw materials.
Competition
Given our strategic presence on the Gulf Coast and in California, and our relationships with leading refineries, we estimate that our regenerated sulfuric acid supply share is substantially larger than our closest competitor. We compete in the North American refining services industry with competitors such as Chemtrade and Veolia. We compete on the basis of price, reliability, and responsiveness to changes in customer demand, which is a function of scale, proximity to customer locations and operational expertise. We believe that we benefit from industry economics that favor incumbent producers because the capital cost and regulatory challenges to expand existing capacity are typically significantly less than to build a new plant. In addition, existing robust supply chains, including captive pipeline connections and other transportation logistics add to the competitive advantages available to incumbent producers. As a result, we believe that our integrated and strategically located network of facilities and end-to-end logistics assets in the United States provide us with a significant competitive advantage and would be costly for our competitors to replicate.
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Manufacturing
We produce regenerated sulfuric acid and virgin sulfuric acid through our furnace operations. Regenerated sulfuric acid is produced by thermally decomposing the spent acid in our furnace into a clean gas stream, which is converted into sulfuric acid. Virgin sulfuric acid is produced by burning sulfur and certain sulfur-rich components at high temperatures within a furnace to create a gas stream. The chart below summarizes the manufacturing platform for our Ecoservices segment.
Ecoservices Manufacturing Platform
Advanced Materials & Catalysts
We are a leading global provider of advanced materials and specialty catalyst products and process solutions to leading producers and licensors of polyethylene. Our product groups include Advanced Silicas and Zeolite Catalysts. Zeolite Catalyst products are sold through the Zeolyst Joint Venture.
Advanced Silicas supplies finished catalyst and catalyst supports for the production of HDPE and linear low density polyethylene (“LLDPE”). HDPE is a high strength and high stiffness plastic used in bottles, containers, and molded applications, whereas LLDPE is used predominately for films. We also produce a catalyst that is used globally for the production of MMA, the monomer for acrylic engineering resins, a clear scratch-resistant plastic used in sheet or molded form to replace glass and as a durable surface coating and produce a catalyst used for the manufacture of bio-butadiene. Because these catalysts are highly technical and customized for our customers to manufacture products with specific properties, they are often covered under long-term supply agreements and, in some cases, we are a customer’s sole source supplier. In addition, we supply silica anti-blocking products that are used to prevent opposite faces of polyethylene and polyester films from adhering to one another during manufacturing and in use. We also develop and supply functionalized silicas that are typically used in applications requiring high adsorption properties, including CO 2 capture and storage, water clean up and metals removal from waste.
The Zeolyst Joint Venture, (formed in 1988 specifically as Zeolyst International and Zeolyst C.V., our 50% owned joint venture with Shell Catalysts & Technologies, an affiliate of Royal Dutch Shell plc. or “Shell”), supplies high technology specialty zeolites and zeolite-based catalysts to customers for refining of oil primarily hydrocracking catalyst and dewaxing, sustainable fuels and emission control systems for both on-road and non-road diesel engines. We also supply custom zeolites to catalyst companies who compete in similar industries. The Zeolyst Joint Venture leverages each partner’s technology and production expertise, including Shell’s expertise in hydrocracking to maximize liquid product yields, especially distillate, while at the same time removing sulfur, and Ecovyst’s expertise in zeolite research and development, production technology, and market understanding for applications including sustainable fuels, emission control technology, advanced recycling and many customized zeolite catalyst solutions.
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Hydrocracking catalyst is the most economic method to meet sulfur emission control standards for refiners while maintaining yields for diesel, which is considered one of the most profitable product streams. The Zeolyst Joint Venture is the sole supplier of hydrocracking catalyst to Shell for their own catalyst consumption, however, the majority of sales are to third-party refining customers. We also provide zeolite supports to many of the hydrocracking catalyst suppliers, positioning us as a leading supplier in the global hydrocracking catalyst value chain.
To meet nitrogen oxides emission control regulations that are expanding globally, many of our zeolite powders are used in an advanced emission control technology called selective catalytic reduction, largely focused on heavy-duty diesel transportation. This process uses ammonia to react with engine exhaust gases via our catalysts in order to convert nitrogen oxides, a pollutant, into harmless nitrogen and water. We believe that our zeolite catalysts can enable selective catalytic reduction technology to reduce the amount of nitrogen oxides in such exhaust gases by more than 90% and is one of the most cost-effective methods to reduce diesel engine emissions.
Competition
Our Advanced Silicas product group primarily competes with Grace with the catalyst components used for the production of polyethylene. The Zeolyst Joint Venture competes with global catalyst producers such as Grace, BASF, UOP, Axens, and Topsoe, while at the same time providing many of them customized zeolite solutions for their product offerings. Some direct competition with niche companies exists, including competitors such as Tosoh and Clariant. We typically compete on the basis of performance, product consistency, reliability and responsiveness to changes in customer demand.
Manufacturing
We manufacture our catalyst products using sodium silicate to make specialty zeolite and silica products. These zeolites and silicas are either used directly to produce catalysts or are sold as precursors to other catalyst manufacturers.
The chart below summarizes the manufacturing platform for our Advanced Materials & Catalysts segment.
Advanced Silicas Manufacturing Platform
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Zeolyst Joint Venture Manufacturing Platform
Raw Materials
Our products are produced from readily available raw materials such as sodium silicate and sodium hydroxide (“caustic soda”). We also use natural gas and electricity in our manufacturing process, with our North American facilities benefiting from the plentiful supplies of shale gas. In addition, we have long-term supply relationships with many of our key raw materials suppliers. We aim to mitigate the impact of raw material or energy price volatility using a variety of mechanisms, including cost pass-through clauses in our sale contracts and other adjustment provisions.
We are able to negotiate our supply agreements for our key raw materials based on our leading industry position and global scale in an effort to achieve competitive pricing. We also maintain a raw material quality audit and qualification program designed to ensure that the material we purchase satisfies stringent quality requirements. Key raw materials for our segments include:
Key Raw Materials Segments
Sodium hydroxide (“caustic soda”) Ecoservices
Sulfur Ecoservices
Sodium silicate Advanced Materials & Catalysts
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While natural gas is not a direct feedstock for any individual product, we use natural gas powered furnaces to heat raw materials and create the chemical reactions necessary to manufacture our products. We maintain multiple suppliers wherever possible and we seek to forward purchase to stabilize our exposure to fluctuations in prices for natural gas. Where possible, we also utilize pass-through clauses for raw material and natural gas costs in our customer contracts. However, we may not be successful in passing through all increases in raw material costs or maintaining an uninterrupted supply of natural gas for all of our furnaces. See “Risk Factors—Risks Related to Our Business — If we are unable to pass on increases in raw material prices, including natural gas, to our customers or to retain or replace our key suppliers, our results of operations and cash flows may be negatively affected”.
Zeolyst Joint Venture
The Zeolyst Joint Venture is a long-standing partnership with Shell Catalysts & Technologies, an affiliate of Royal Dutch Shell plc. or “Shell”, that dates back to 1988 and is focused on the development, manufacture and sale of zeolite-containing catalysts through manufacturing facilities located in Kansas, USA and the Netherlands. We combine our expertise in zeolite supply and technology with our partner’s expertise in global refinery catalyst sales and technology. We have a 50% ownership stake in the Zeolyst Joint Venture. We produce zeolites that are precursors for the production of hydrocracking catalyst and sustainable fuels catalysts. Our extensive expertise in zeolite production enables us to manage the production of specialty zeolites which includes custom catalyst solutions, aromatic, mainly Xylene focused catalysts. dewaxing catalysts that improve lube oil performance, and paraffin isomerization catalysts that upgrade olefins to high octane gasoline blending components for refinery and petrochemical customers. In addition, our products include zeolite-based catalysts that enable catalytic based thermal pyrolysis of plastics wastes and adsorbents that enable the selective purification of waste streams.
Research and Development
We benefit from the highly-skilled technical capabilities of our employees who are dedicated to new product development. We operate two research and development facilities: one in the United States and one in the United Kingdom. Our research and development activities are directed toward the development of new and improved products, processes, systems and applications for customers. Our research and development team is organized to support each of our operating businesses and staffed with experienced scientists, technical service representatives and process engineers with direct knowledge of our products. This business group and customer-oriented team structure provides strong links between our product development and manufacturing functions and our customer collaboration and specifications. These connections enable us to focus our development on timely and relevant products for our customers while remaining attentive to manufacturing considerations that enable us to produce new products profitably and in a timely manner. Product development activities are organized into research and development projects that are subject to regular reviews by the business teams in order to understand and address our customers’ evolving needs and invest in our growth by prioritizing innovation driven by these identified needs. In addition, we hold senior-level project reviews to ensure best practices are shared and consistent metrics are used to determine a project’s merit and the size of the potential opportunity.
Intellectual Property
We evaluate how best to use patents, trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets and other available intellectual property protections on a case-by-case base. This is done to protect our products and our critical investments in research and development, manufacturing and marketing. We focus on securing and maintaining patents for certain inventions such as composition-of-matter, while maintaining other inventions such as process improvements as trade secrets to maximize the value of our product portfolio and reinforce our competitive advantage. Our policy is to seek appropriate intellectual property protection for significant product and process developments in the major areas where the relevant products are manufactured or sold. Patents may cover products, processes, intermediate products and product uses. Patents extend for varying periods in accordance with the date of patent application filing and the legal life of patents in the various countries in which the patents are registered. The protection afforded, which may also vary from country to country, depends upon the type of subject matter covered by the patent and the scope of the claims of the patent.
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In most industrial countries, patent protection may be available for new substances and formulations, as well as for unique applications and production processes. However, given the geographical scope of our business and our continued growth strategy, there are regions of the world in which we do business or may do business in the future where intellectual property protection may be limited and difficult to enforce. Moreover, we monitor our competitors’ products and, if circumstances were to dictate that we do so, we would vigorously challenge the actions of others that conflict with our patents, trademarks and other intellectual property rights. We maintain appropriate information security policies and procedures reasonably designed to ensure the safeguarding of confidential information including, where appropriate, data encryption, access controls and employee awareness training.
We own or have rights to a number of patents relating to our products and processes. As of December 31, 2023, we owned 21 patented inventions in the United States, with 175 patents issued in countries around the world and 61 patent applications pending worldwide. As of December 31, 2023, we also had 61 trademark registrations worldwide, including 5 U.S. trademark registrations. We also have 20 pending trademark applications, which include applications in the United States and worldwide. In addition to our registered and applied-for intellectual property portfolio, we also claim ownership of certain trade secrets and proprietary know-how developed by and used in our business. Including our Zeolyst Joint Venture, we are party to certain arrangements whereby we license in the right to use certain intellectual property rights in connection with our business.
Seasonality
Our regeneration services product group, which is a part of our Ecoservices segment, typically experiences seasonal fluctuations as a result of higher demand for gasoline products in the summer and lower demand in the winter months. These demand fluctuations results in higher sales and working capital requirements in the second and third quarters.
Sustainability Overview
Sustainability is intertwined with our daily business and is reinforced through our strategy and values. We strive to create sustainable products that are safe for the environment, and to reduce waste and increase efficiencies for our customers and stakeholders. We believe that our products contribute to lower emissions and cleaner air, advance the global transition to clean energy, support the circular plastics economy and ensure clean, purified drinking water. We are committed to creating environmentally responsible products that we believe make a difference in people’s daily lives and for our planet.
While offering products and services that help our customers to advance their own sustainability goals, we also work to advance our commitment to maintain sound environmental, social and governance (“ESG”) practices, policies and procedures. For example, we:
• Were awarded a 2024 Platinum Sustainability Score from EcoVadis, a third-party sustainability evaluation company. The Platinum Medal rating from EcoVadis places us among the top 1% (99th percentile) of all companies assessed by EcoVadis over the past twelve months;
• Maintained an executive level position of Vice President – Environment and Sustainability that reports directly to our CEO;
• Under the leadership of our Global Director of Health, Safety and Process Safety Management, instituted additional health, safety and process safety programs, as well as launched a company-wide employee health and wellness program that covers both physical and mental health;
• Provided enhanced sustainability information on our website and published our 2022 Sustainability Report, our second as Ecovyst, in July 2023;
• Continued work towards our recently announced series of 2025 and 2030 sustainability goals with respect to fuel usage, power usage, healthy, safety and environment performance, and community engagement;
• Introduced our employees to our core values Stewardship, High Standards, Integrity and Engagement (“SHINE”) and in 2023, provided training on these values and provisions of our Code of Conduct, completing training for approximately 99.8% of active employees in 2023;
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• Continued steps to implement additional improvements in a number of areas, including health, safety and environmental (“HSE”) performance; commitment to diversity, inclusion and human rights both within our company and in our supply chain; and ethical and lawful business practices;
• Further integrated a corporate-wide sustainability software platform, which we are utilizing as an internal, real-time sustainability performance dashboard to enable improved analytics and greater visibility into our sustainability impacts; and
• Achieved a greater than 90% performance in our flagship HSE Perfect Days program, which targets at-risk behaviors and celebrates positive HSE performance across the organization on a daily basis.
The sections that follow provide some highlights of our environmental, social, and governance programs and procedures.
Environmental Stewardship
Our products and technologies continue to address our customers’ sustainability challenges, tightening global regulatory standards and changing consumer preferences. In our Ecoservices segment, we provide sulfuric acid regeneration services that avoid significant landfill or deep well disposal of spent, or used, sulfuric acid. In our Advanced Materials & Catalysts segment, our zeolite catalysts are used for cleaner air applications and our advanced silicas are key for light weighting and plastics recycling.
As part of our sustainability commitment regarding our own operations, we apply the principles of the Environmental Management standard of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO 14001) at our facilities throughout the world. For chemical facilities in the United States, we also adhere to the Responsible Care® RC14001 Technical Specifications of the American Chemistry Council (“ACC”).
We maintain policies and procedures to monitor and control HSE risks, and to enable compliance with applicable state, national, and international HSE requirements. We have comprehensive HSE compliance, auditing and management programs in place to assist in our compliance with applicable regulatory requirements and with internal policies and procedures, as appropriate. Each Ecovyst facility has developed and implemented specific critical occupational health, safety, environmental, security and loss control programs.
We also have a strong Health and Safety (“H&S”) and Environmental and Sustainability (“E&S”) organizations staffed by professionals who are responsible for health, safety, process safety, sustainability, product stewardship and product safety regulatory compliance. Our H&S and E&S organizational structures feature executive management-level leadership, active oversight by our Board and dedicated H&S and E&S experts on staff. We have a Global Director of Health, Safety and Process Safety Management and also have Regional H&S Specialists and Managers who are embedded in the field and provide H&S expertise and support to operating sites. In addition, our Vice President Environmental and Sustainability oversees a team of environmental personnel that serve our operating sites.
As an ACC Responsible Care® member company, we continue to monitor and report our HSE metrics annually. Our sustainability metrics, including waste generation and water consumption for 2018 through 2022, were third party assured through verification of the data. We included the assured data on our website and in our 2022 Sustainability Report, which we published in July 2023.
We also have established a Product Safety and Product Stewardship management system that is compliant with the RC14001 technical specification and is supported by a highly skilled Director of Product Stewardship. We conduct Product Stewardship reviews as part of new product development and routinely evaluate product safety risk for raw materials, intermediates, and finished products.
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Social Responsibility, including human capital discussions
We seek to act in a socially responsible manner through our various HSE programs as described above, our commitment to building a diverse and inclusive workforce, engagement with and support for the communities where we live and work, and advancement of socially responsible business practices through partnerships and other industry frameworks.
We are committed to providing equal employment opportunities for all employees and applicants for employment, and do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, pregnancy, gender identity and expression, national origin, disability, age (40 or above), ancestry, genetic information, marital status, veteran status or any other classification protected by law. This commitment applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, advancement, training, transfer, demotion, lay off and recall, termination, compensation and benefits.
It is our policy to comply with all applicable laws and regulations in each jurisdiction in which we operate in order to provide appropriate working conditions for our colleagues. This means that we comply with applicable laws regarding the employment relationship including those that (1) prohibit child labor, (2) set acceptable working conditions and working hours, (3) provide for fair wages, including minimum wages and overtime, (4) prohibit forced or bonded labor, (5) permit freedom of association and collective bargaining, and (6) prohibit discrimination, harassment and other forms of degrading or inhumane treatment. Using tools such as our Supplier Code of Conduct and contractual provisions, we also hold our business partners to these same standards.
We further our people by acknowledging our workforce is key to our success. We offer highly competitive salaries, benefits, developmental opportunities and work/life balance. We proactively seek to attract, incentivize and retain a talented and motivated workforce. Our global succession planning process is designed to provide sufficient talented personnel to fill key leadership, innovation and manufacturing roles well into the future and to better prepare employees for their future at the Company. In order to enable a pipeline for our leadership, we maintain a robust Emerging Leaders program to identify and nurture top talent to build leadership capabilities and provide the fundamental skills we believe every leader needs to generate passion and productivity in their team. The program also provides an important networking opportunity that creates a connected community of leaders at the Company.
We review our compensation and benefits programs periodically to ensure continued competitiveness. In the United States, our benefit programs are designed to help protect the health and financial well-being of our full-time employees and their family members, offering a choice of several medical & dental plans, as well as vision, flexible spending accounts, short-term and long-term disability insurance and an employee assistance program. To help them prepare for their future, we offer a defined contribution savings plan, which includes company contributions. Benefits outside the United States are designed to supplement government-provided programs in each country.
We benefit from our talented, dedicated and diverse employee population and we actively promote diversity in an effort to maintain a workforce that reflects the diversity of the societies in which we operate. As of December 31, 2023, we had 911 employees worldwide, of which 784 were employed in the United States. Further, as of December 31, 2023, approximately 24% of our U.S.-based executives, managers and professionals were females and 21% were non-white males. As of December 31, 2023, approximately 44% of our employees were represented by a union, works council or other employee representative body. We believe we have good relationships with our employees and their respective works councils, unions or other bargaining representatives.
This international strength, supported by our core values of SHINE, fosters a rich culture founded on diversity of thought. We firmly believe that success is achieved through the intellect and commitment of our people, so we employ a long-term human capital program to attract, retain and develop talent for the future. We are proud of our highly collaborative teams that enable an inclusive workplace where employees are encouraged to bring their own experiences to promote innovation from all levels of the organization. This constructive work environment is supplemented with a fully integrated on-line performance management process that improves the communication of aligned goals, encourages consistent feedback and furthers employee engagement. Today, there are women on the leadership teams of each of our businesses as well as in our R&D, Finance, E&S and Human Resources functions.
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In 2023, our sites continued to work to have a positive impact in the communities in which we operate. Some of these events included: (a) our office in The Woodlands, Texas participated in a food drive sponsored by a non-profit organization to provide Thanksgiving meals to families as well as sponsor local AAU basketball teams; (b) our Houston, Texas plant supported a local elementary school by providing lunches for Teacher Appreciation day, provided bus services for children to take a field trip for the holidays, and donated jerseys to a soccer team; (c) our Hammond, Indiana plant supported a local school district back-to-school parade; (d) our Baytown, Texas plant donated benches to a local elementary school and wrote holiday cards for troops stationed abroad; (e) employees at our Baton Rouge, Louisiana facility collaborated with a non-profit organization to renovate the residences of elderly and disabled, low-income homeowners and adopted Angels through the Salvation Army for the holiday season; (f) our Martinez, California facility participated in several community awareness and emergency response task forces; (g) our Dominguez, California plant personnel donated $1,000 to a local Rotary Club to subsidize food items for local families and donated benches to a local school; (h) our West Orange, Texas plant donated to organizations whose mission is to train, educate, and empower young women; (i) our Kansas City, Kansas site participated in the “Adopt an Angel” program sponsored by a charitable organization where employees purchased and wrapped holiday gifts; (j) our Warrington, United Kingdom sponsored uniforms for a local youth soccer team; (k) our Delfzijl, The Netherlands site donated funds to a local food pantry; (l) our Conshohocken, Pennsylvania site participated in a food drive, donated toys for Toys for Tots and cleaned the surrounding neighborhood for Earth Day; and (m) our Malvern, Pennsylvania office personnel participated in a food drive sponsored by a local food pantry to provide Thanksgiving meals to families, as well as in the “Adopt a Child” program sponsored by a local church to provide holiday gifts for children whose families would not otherwise be able to afford gifts.
Governance
We maintain and consistently reinforce within our organization a series of policies and practices designed to ensure that decisions made on behalf of our company are properly made and executed. Our governance programs and policies start with a strong tone at the top and are summarized in our Executive Statement on Ethics and Compliance, which has been issued by our CEO and our Chief Compliance Officer and distributed throughout the organization.
The principles set forth in the Executive Statement are codified in our Code of Conduct, which sets forth the legal and ethical standards to which our employees must adhere, including (a) acting with integrity, (b) avoiding actual or apparent conflicts of interest, (c) complying with the rules and regulations of federal, state, provincial, local governments, and other appropriate regulatory agencies, (d) complying with all rules and regulations prohibiting fraud, bribery, corrupt practices, anti-competitive activities and trading with embargoed persons and countries, (e) complying with all company policies and procedures, and (f) actively promoting ethical behavior in the workplace.
Our governance programs and policies can be found on the Company’s sustainability webpages, which is routinely updated and includes a description of our enterprise risk management program and our policies on child labor, human trafficking, anti-harassment, antibribery, and cybersecurity all of which are evaluated by third-parties, including EcoVadis. In addition, the investors pages of our website contain additional materials regarding our corporate governance process, including our Board committee charters, our corporate governance guidelines, our Code of Conduct, our Supplier Code of Conduct and other documents.
Additional Sustainability Information: Further information about our sustainability programs can be found on our website at https://www.ecovyst.com/sustainability/. The information available on our sustainability website includes our sustainability report, our sustainability goals (and how such goals map to the UN Sustainable Development Goals), materiality matrix, letters of assurance, Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Disclosure and Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) Index, our Health Safety Environment & Security Policy Statement, our Corporate Code of Conduct, our Human Rights Policy Statement, a description of our Ethics & Compliance Complaint and Review Process and our Labor Policy. The further information contained on our website is not incorporated herein by reference and is not a part of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
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Environmental Regulations
We are subject to extensive, evolving and increasingly stringent national, state and/or local environmental laws and regulations, which address, among other things, the following:
• emissions to the air;
• discharges to soils and surface and subsurface waters;
• other releases into the environment;
• prevention and remediation of releases into the indoor or outdoor environment;
• generation, handling, storage, transportation, treatment and disposal of waste materials;
• maintenance of safe conditions in the workplace;
• registration and evaluation of chemicals;
• production, handling, labeling or use of chemicals used or produced by us; and
• stewardship of products after manufacture.
Again, we apply the principles of the Environmental Management standard of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO 14001) at our facilities throughout the world. For chemical facilities in the United States, we also adhere to the Responsible Care RC14001 Technical Specifications of the American Chemistry Council.
We maintain policies and procedures to monitor and control HSE risks, and to monitor compliance with applicable state, national, and international HSE requirements. We have a strong HSE organization. We maintain a staff of professionals who are responsible for environmental, safety, health and product regulatory compliance. We have implemented a corporate audit program for all of our facilities. However, we cannot provide assurance that we will be in full compliance at all times with all applicable environmental laws and regulations. We expect that stringent environmental regulations will continue to be imposed on us and our industry in general. Evolving chemical regulation programs throughout the world could impose testing requirements or restrictions on our chemical raw materials and products.
Environmental Remediation
Environmental laws and regulations require mitigation or remediation of the effects of the disposal or release of chemical substances. Under some of these regulations, as the current or former owner or operator of a property, we could be held liable for the costs of removal or remediation of hazardous substances on or under the property, without regard to whether we knew of or caused the contamination, and regardless of whether the practices that resulted in the contamination were permitted at the time they occurred. Many of our current or former production sites have an extended history of industrial use, and it is impossible to predict precisely what effect these laws and regulations will have on us in the future. Soil and groundwater contamination requiring investigation and remediation has been discovered at some of the sites, and might occur or be discovered at other sites. Several active and former facilities currently are undergoing investigation and remediation, including sites in Dominguez, CA and Martinez, CA.
Environmental Programs
We have comprehensive HSE compliance, auditing and management programs in place to assist in our compliance with applicable regulatory requirements and with internal policies and procedures, as appropriate. Each facility has developed and implemented specific critical occupational health, safety, environmental, security and loss control programs.
We also have implemented a HSE organizational structure with executive committee level leadership and dedicated environmental experts. We have a Global Director of Health, Safety and Process Safety Management as well as Regional HSE Specialists and Managers who are embedded in the field and provide HSE expertise and support to operating sites. Certain, larger sites may have dedicated environmental or safety personnel.
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Product Safety and Product Stewardship
We have established a Product Safety and Product Stewardship management system that is compliant with the RC14001 technical specification and is supported by a highly skilled Director of Product Stewardship, who is a “Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals” (“REACH”) Specialist. We conduct Product Stewardship reviews as part of new product development and routinely evaluate product safety risk for raw materials, intermediates, and products.
As a chemical company, we are subject to extensive and evolving regulations regarding the manufacturing, processing, distribution, importing, exporting, and labeling of our products and raw materials. In the European Union, the REACH regulations came into effect in 2007, with implementation rolling out over time. Registered chemicals then can be subject to further evaluation and potential restrictions. Our high-volume chemicals have been registered under REACH; lower-volume chemicals (mainly catalysts) were registered by the applicable 2018 deadline. To date, no further testing has been required.
Since the promulgation of REACH, other countries have enacted or are in the process of implementing similar comprehensive chemical regulations. These programs include the Korea REACH law, which is requiring registration and potential testing of chemicals, and similar programs implemented in the UK, Taiwan, Turkey, India, and elsewhere. In the US, all pertinent chemicals have been designated as “active” under the US Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act. At this time, none have been designated as chemicals which the EPA will prioritize and evaluate for regulation. Based on our chemicals and the various regulations promulgated to date, we do not anticipate costly testing requirements nor severe restrictions, but cannot guarantee that we will not be subject to requirements for our products or raw materials that could materially affect our operations. In particular, some of our products might be characterized as nanomaterials and then be subject to evolving, new nanomaterial regulations.
We remain alert for any regulatory changes which may impact our products and their end uses.
Available Information
Our website address is www.ecovyst.com. We make available free of charge through our website our Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K and amendments to those reports filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (“Exchange Act”), as well as reports on Forms 3, 4 and 5 filed pursuant to Section 16 of the Exchange Act, as soon as reasonably practicable after such documents are electronically filed with, or furnished to, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”). The SEC maintains an Internet website, http://www.sec.gov, which contains reports, proxy and information statements, and other information regarding our Company and other issuers that file electronically with the SEC. The information on our website is not, and shall not be deemed to be, a part of this report or incorporated into any other filings we make with the SEC.
Our Corporate Governance Guidelines, Code of Business Conduct and the charters of the Audit Committee, Compensation Committee, Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee and Health, Safety and Environment Committee of our Board of Directors are also available on our website and are available in print to any shareholder upon request by writing to Ecovyst Investor Relations, 300 Lindenwood Drive, Malvern, PA 19355. In accordance with SEC rules, we intend to disclose any amendment (other than any technical, administrative or other non-substantive) to the Code of Business Conduct, or any waiver of any provision thereof with respect to any of our executive officers, on our website within four business days following such amendment or waiver.
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