Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. A warm welcome to Clariant's 2021 Capital Markets Day. I'm excited and inspired to be your host today. Unfortunately, we are not able to meet in person, as we all continue facing the ongoing challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic around the globe. Today's event is fully compliant with the current COVID regulations. Therefore, we are streaming our presentations and will afterwards have an interactive virtual Q&A session to engage in the best way possible under these circumstances. Let me start with some housekeeping items. I would like to remind all participants that the presentation includes forward-looking statements which are subject to risks and uncertainties. Participants are therefore encouraged to refer to the disclaimer at the end of today's presentation. This morning, we published a press release and just recently also the Capital Markets Day presentation.
A recording of this event will be available shortly after the conclusion, and all materials can be found in the Capital Markets Day section of Clariant's investor relations website. Please note that all figures discussed refer to continuing operations unless specifically noted otherwise. To conclude my opening remark, let me express a big thank you to all the real people of Clariant involved in the preparation, support, and execution of today's Capital Markets Day. Let's go straight into the agenda. I'm honored to introduce the Clariant executive committee members who will be presenting today. We will start the presentations with Conrad Keijzer, who will introduce the purpose-led strategy, leading sustainability positioning of our specialty portfolio, and the new 2025 targets for the group.
Hans Bohnen will begin the case studies with a catalyst success story and will later focus on the opportunities from our Vita range of surfactants and ethylene oxide derivatives closely linked to the Indian joint venture.Hoegemann will talk about a strongly growing sustainable flame retardants business and the corresponding capacity expansion in China, as well as the sunliquid technology for second generation bioethanol. Last but not least, Stephan Lynen will take a closer look at our 2025 targets from a financial perspective prior to a wrap-up of the presentations by Conrad before we head into the Q&A session. Ladies and gentlemen, let's kick off the 2021 Capital Markets Day now. Greater chemistry between people and planet. Clariant's new purpose, the purpose-led strategy in all its facets. Conrad, the stage is yours.
Thank you, Andreas. Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining us today at our virtual Capital Markets Day. We would like to cover five topics today. First, we are unveiling our new purpose statement. Clariant is at the forefront of sustainability-focused innovation. We are putting our customers, our employees, and our planet at the center of everything we do. Greater chemistry between people and planet. We are a leader in sustainability ourselves, and we support our customers with their sustainability transitions. This year, we defined new climate targets that set out ambitious absolute reductions for Scope 1, 2, and 3 greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. These targets are science-based and go beyond supporting the Paris target of a less than two degree temperature rise by 2050. Clariant has an attractive innovation pipeline strongly linked to customer-driven sustainability requirements.
This enables us to grow our business consistently above GDP. Our growth will be supported by strategic investments, an enhanced footprint in China, and selective M&A to close any product, market, and technology gaps. We will follow a differentiated growth strategy and invest in our most attractive businesses and market segments. We will further expand our cost programs in business with lower value creation to further enhance our profitability. We are committed to achieve top quartile growth, profitability, sustainability, and people performance versus our specialty chemicals peers. This is reflected in our new midterm financial and non-financial targets, which we will introduce today. In the recent months, our leadership team has worked together with colleagues from all over the world and with key customers to clearly define our unique role and contribution as a company, our purpose.
Over the past year with the company, I have experienced firsthand our strong innovation capability. I know this from the breadth of our innovation programs and from my exciting visits to our labs. Even more reassuring, I hear this every day from our customers who are truly enthusiastic about our innovations. The world is changing quickly. Climate change and carbon footprints are becoming a big priority for all of us. The chemical industry is only responsible for about 8% of global CO2 emissions. However, our industry touches more than 90% of all the products we use in our daily lives. Think about food, healthcare, cosmetics. Think about the many products that make our lives more pleasant, like mobile phones or electric vehicles. At Clariant, we have the unique opportunity and responsibility to create a truly meaningful impact.
Our innovation power, customer proximity, and our uniquely talented and experienced people enable us to deliver products with an outstanding technical performance and with an outstanding sustainability performance. All of this is captured in our new purpose statement, Greater Chemistry Between People and Planet. Greater chemistry stands for innovation. It stands for unique solutions that redefine what conventional wisdom considers to be possible. Greater chemistry between people stands for the beauty of interactions between people. Greater chemistry in our relationships with customers allow us to go beyond a transactional relationship. Greater chemistry between people also describes our company culture, a culture that actively promotes diversity, inclusiveness, mutual appreciation, and empowerment. Greater chemistry describes an environment where everyone can contribute and can develop their talents to their fullest potential. Finally, greater chemistry between people and planet means sustainability. It is the greater chemistry that serves a greater purpose.
It expresses our ambition to enable the transition to more sustainable living. Our new purpose comes to life in our new purpose-led strategy. Our increased customer centricity, our innovative products driven by sustainability, and our focus on people all will be reflected in our new midterm targets, both in our financial and in our non-financial targets. Clariant is one of the few focused specialty chemicals players of scale in the world. We have simplified and focused ourselves in three business areas. We operate 80 production and R&D sites globally. We have a diverse workforce of 11,500 employees, representing 95 different nationalities. We are proud of our safety track record with a lost time injury accident rate of 0.16. This is a leading performance among chemical companies. Needless to say, it is our commitment to achieve an injury-free workplace for all of our employees.
In the last 12 months trading, we generated sales of almost CHF 4.2 billion with an EBITDA margin of 16.3%. Since 2019, Clariant has divested its healthcare packaging and masterbatches business, and we expect to close our pigments divestment early next year. Our refocused portfolio is truly a specialty chemicals portfolio with strong market positions in Care Chemicals, Catalysis, and Natural Resources. We have become a company with a higher quality business, with better margins, a better sustainability profile, and an ability to deliver stronger growth. The shift in our portfolio resulted in a higher EBITDA margin from 13% to 15.7% in 2019. Our focused specialty portfolio showed its resilience during the pandemic. Revenues were down 12% in Swiss francs, but only 5% in local currency in a challenging global environment.
Our EBITDA margins declined by only 70 basis points to 15% in 2020. In the last twelve months trading, our EBITDA margin increased to 16.3%. This shows not only a strong recovery from the pandemic. These numbers demonstrate our ability to improve our margins in an inflationary raw material environment, as well as the initial results from our new focus to bring our core businesses to their full potential. We've set new midterm targets that reflect our ambition to achieve top quartile results in specialty chemicals in terms of growth, profitability, sustainability, and people. We are targeting to grow our top line by 4%-6% on average per year. To increase our EBITDA margins from this year's guidance of 16%-17% to 19%-21% by 2025.
We are also introducing a cash conversion target for the first time. We're planning to reach a free cash flow conversion of around 40% by 2025, defined as operating cash flow minus CapEx divided by EBITDA. In addition to our new financial targets, our non-financial targets reflect our purpose-driven strategy and our commitment to people and planet. We are targeting a reduction of 40% for our Scope 1 and 2 emissions and 14% for our Scope 3 emissions. We are further targeting to become a top quartile company in terms of employee satisfaction as a key measurement for our ambition to be the employer of choice in our industry. Based on the opportunities we see for Clariant today, we are confident in our ability to deliver on these targets. Next, I would like to give you a brief overview of our three business areas.
Our business area, Care Chemicals, generated CHF 1.6 billion sales with a 20.9% EBITDA margin in the last 12 months trading. This makes it our largest business area in terms of EBITDA contribution. Consumer end markets such as personal care, healthcare, home care, account for roughly two-thirds of our sales. We are holding a top three position in about 40% of our portfolio in markets which are still consolidating. We will specifically invest in personal care through further expansion into natural products and products based on renewable feedstocks. This shift to higher value products will help us to increase our profitability in Care Chemicals. Organic growth through innovations is complemented by our recent acquisitions. Our Beraca acquisition serves the growing customer demand for bio-based and natural products, in this case, oils and clays that are used as ingredients for cosmetics.
Our newly formed joint venture with India Glycols brings ethylene oxide derivatives that are based on green bioethanol. Our range of Vita surfactants are fully based on biorenewable feedstock, which are fully segregated. We will expand our position in healthcare to areas adjacent to our personal care technology platforms. We already have a strong position in pharma-grade polyethylene glycol, used as a laxative and as a carrier for drugs. Our digital formulation capability allows for rapid responses to our paints and coatings customers to help them with optimizing their paint formulations. In summary, our portfolio will grow above GDP as a result of prioritizing growth in our consumer-facing segments. These segments require ingredients and technologies that are addressing the increasing consumer demand for more sustainable products.
Our business area, Catalysis, generated sales of CHF 900 million with an EBITDA margin of 18% in the last 12 months trailing. The recent EBITDA margins have been below the levels that we achieved previously, mainly due to product mix effects and costs associated with the start-up of our new sunliquid plant in Romania. These effects are starting to normalize, and we are confident in our ability to deliver higher EBITDA margins in this business. In Catalysis, we have a strong top two position in most of our segments. Our catalysts enable the reduction of the carbon footprint of our customers' current processes. We also enable future low CO₂ or even CO₂-free chemical value chains such as Power-to-X or the new hydrogen economy. In Petrochemicals, we serve the ethylene and propylene value chains, the key building blocks of the petrochemical industry.
We are leading in catalysts for the strongly growing market for on-purpose propylene production. Our Catalysis business benefits from the natural oversupply of ethylene versus propylene since the arrival of shale gas. Projections are for continued strong demand for propylene versus ethylene. Therefore, our propane to propylene business through propane dehydrogenation will continue to see strong growth over the next years. The polypropylene market will continue to grow significantly above GDP and is a strong growth driver for our catalyst business. Our specialty catalyst business includes hydrogenation and oxidation catalysts required to produce important chemical intermediates such as maleic anhydride and formaldehyde, as well as emission control catalysts and products for fuel upgrading. Our syngas business includes catalysts for the production of ammonia, methanol, and hydrogen.
Our syngas activities are key to the energy transition and for enabling the future hydrogen economy, especially in the conversion of hydrogen to chemicals that would allow transportation of hydrogen such as ammonia or other liquid organic hydrogen carriers. An important growth driver for Catalysis is our biofuels and derivatives business. We are starting up the first industrial unit for second generation bioethanol using biocatalysts, enzymes, to convert agricultural waste into bioethanol. In general, many of our activities are geared towards supporting our customers in becoming more energy efficient and more sustainable. This is the key mission for our Catalysis business, which will deliver consistent growth above GDP. Our business area, Natural Resources, generated sales of CHF 1.7 billion with an EBITDA margin of 16.5% in the trailing 12 months.
We have a top three position in over half of the Natural Resources businesses, which includes oil and mining services, functional minerals and additives. Our Natural Resources businesses will benefit from sustainability trends like e-mobility, renewable fuels, and plastics recycling. We enable e-mobility with our halogen-free flame retardants. These protect plastic battery housings, cables and connectors from fire. We enable chemical recycling through our purification technology for pyrolysis oil, and we support renewable fuels with our absorbents for the purification of biodiesel. Finally, in our oil and mining services business, we are developing products for more sustainable mining. These solutions offer better dewatering and ore separation in mines with environmentally friendly flotation chemicals. In Natural Resources, we do have many niche products and capabilities that will benefit from sustainability trends. These will drive above market growth in this segment.
In summary, we are positioned in attractive end markets with a strong demand for innovation and sustainable products. In 2020, we generated 40% of our sales in consumer-facing end markets such as home and personal care, coatings and adhesives, and agriculture. Home and personal care is our single largest end market, accounting for about 20% of our sales. Our share in consumer facing markets will further increase through our recent acquisition of Beraca and our joint venture with India Glycols. Clariant is starting from a position of strength when it comes to carbon emissions. Comparing the greenhouse gas emission intensity by unit of sales, Clariant is among the leading specialty companies, both in Scope 1 and 2, as well as for our Scope 3 emissions. This year, we announced science-based targets.
We are planning to reduce our Scope 1 and 2 emissions with 40% and our Scope 3 emissions with 14% by 2030. With our new 2030 targets, we are well positioned to maintain our leadership position. We see potential legislation aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions as a net opportunity for our company. Our ambitious reduction targets are underpinned with clear roadmaps and milestones for achievement. Our key initiatives include operations digitization, process optimization, and selective equipment upgrades. To support the energy transition, the share of green electricity will reach two-thirds of our global demand by 2030, up from 40% today. Reducing the carbon footprint of our raw materials will be based on three levers, increased use of sustainable bio-based raw materials, recycled raw materials, and working with suppliers which are reducing their emissions.
We expect to spend up to CHF 30 million CapEx per year to implement these sustainability initiatives. We play an important role to help our customers with their sustainability transitions in three key areas, bio-based products, decarbonization, and circularity. These are not pipe dreams. All of these areas already contribute substantially to our sales today and are strongly contributing to our growth ambitions. Bio-based products. Our range of Vita surfactants provides an identical performance in comparison to their synthetic equivalents, and they have a 100% renewable carbon index. Our sunliquid second generation bioethanol technology saves 95% of greenhouse gas emissions through conversion of agricultural waste into bioethanol. Our natural ingredients portfolio offer extracts from plants, for example, to promote revitalization of your skin used in anti-age creams. Enabling decarbonization.
In a collaboration with Technip Energies, we achieved a breakthrough change in both catalyst and reactor design for hydrogen production that offers our customers 10% lower CO2 emissions while increasing production output by 20% at the same time. Clariant catalysts enable future CO2 emission-free chemical value chains such as Power-to-X or the green hydrogen economy. We are currently engaged in more than 40 projects to develop future conversion, storage, and transportation of green hydrogen. Enabling circularity. In mechanical recycling of plastics, maintaining the quality and properties of recycled material versus their virgin equivalent is a challenge. Our antioxidants and our compatibilizers give a better quality level for mechanical recycling. In chemical recycling of plastics, it is important to remove contaminations from the pyrolysis oil before feeding it to the cracker. Our adsorbents provide unique purification to pyrolysis oil and remove impurities such as chlorine or metals.
These are a few of the many applications we have in our portfolio that will drive growth and profitability, all from customer-driven sustainability. China is our most important growth region. Already today, China accounts for 35% of the global specialty chemicals market, and it accounts for more than 50% of the global growth for specialty chemicals demand in the next five years. We will further invest to expand our footprint in China with more than a third of our growth CapEx allocated to China. We are investing CHF 80 million in a new CATOFIN catalyst plant in Du Shan that will ramp up in the first half of 2022. We are investing CHF 60 million to build a new Exolit flame retardant plant in Daya Bay, with construction starting this quarter.
These are investments with an excellent return profile as we can leverage our experience from running similar plants in Europe and North America. We see an increasing demand for products that help our Chinese customers with their sustainability transitions. Earlier this year, we opened our one Clariant campus in Shanghai, representing an investment of CHF 45 million. We currently have around 960 employees in China overall. On the campus, we will have 350 employees, of which 50 are scientists focused on R&D and local technology development. Through these investments, we will increase our share of local production in China from around 35% today to more than 50% by 2025. Increasing our share of local production is important as this improves both our service levels to customers and our cost position.
We will drive local product development based on local needs and locally available raw materials. China has been one of the fastest-growing regions for Clariant, and we expect this to continue in the future. In 2020, China accounted for around 10% of our sales. By 2025, we expect this to increase to 14%. In recent years, Clariant has been very disciplined in divesting its non-core businesses. Now we will strengthen our core businesses through targeted M&A. Our M&A strategy will be focused on value creating build-ons that will support our growth. Focused on complementary technologies and regions. The segments that we see as most attractive for M&A are Consumer Care, Catalysis, Additives, and Purification Products. We will follow a disciplined approach and will achieve the required returns against our cost of capital. This year, Clariant announced and closed two transactions.
A joint venture with India Glycols and the acquisition of the remaining 70% of the shares in Beraca, our naturals and botanicals business in Brazil. Both transactions have brought new technologies, product line extensions, and presence in new regions for our customer-facing business segments in Care Chemicals. These two transactions will increase both our growth rates and our profitability in our existing segments. Until 2025, we are planning to profitably grow the business 4%-6% on average per year. This is supported by multiple growth levers that can be grouped into four categories. We expect 2.5% market growth based on our current geo-exposure in our existing segments. We expect another 1% above market growth to come from sustainability-driven innovation. This will be in bio-based, in decarbonization, and in circularity-enabling products.
We will target an additional 1% of growth from regional expansion focused on China. Lastly, the two acquisitions that we made this year are expected to contribute 0.75% of growth by 2025. All of these growth drivers will enable us to grow in total at a rate of 4%-6% per year on average, reaching CHF 5.1 billion Swiss franc sales by 2025 at the midpoint of the range. We are confident in our ability to further increase our EBITDA margin from our guidance of 16%-17% in 2021 to 19%-21% by 2025. We expect the growth initiatives I just described to contribute two-thirds of the margin step up through the addition of higher margin revenues from our sustainability-driven innovation, regional expansion, as well as increasing operating leverage.
Despite our focus on growth, we will remain disciplined and stringent on cost. Last year, we announced two performance programs. A rightsizing program with the goal to avoid stranded costs following the sale of our non-core businesses. A BU efficiency program to realize annual savings of CHF 50 million. In recent months, we have identified additional savings potential. Therefore, we are announcing today that we are increasing our savings target by CHF 60 million. We now expect our performance programs to generate CHF 110 million annual savings in total by 2025. These additional savings will account for the remaining one-third of our margin step up. In our next breakout session, Hans Bohnen and Bernd Hoegemann will talk more in depth about four of our most important strategic investment projects in terms of growth and profitability.
Hans Bohnen will speak about our new CATOFIN plant in China, representing an investment of CHF 80 million, and about our growth opportunity with our bio-based Vita surfactant. Bernd Hoegemann will speak about our new sunliquid plant in Romania, representing an investment of CHF 240 million, and about our new Exolit flame retardants plant in China, representing an investment of CHF 60 million. Our CFO, Stephan Lynen, will explain in more detail how our strategy will deliver our new financial targets and how we think about capital allocation and returns. First, I'm pleased to hand over to my colleagues, Hans Bohnen and Bernd Hoegemann.
Ladies and gentlemen, I'm very glad to welcome you today. I will be taking you through two growth projects to provide you with some examples of the businesses which we expect to accelerate our organic growth going forward. First, I'd like to discuss the exciting growth project for Clariant, our CATOFIN success story. To give you a clearer picture of why CATOFIN is so successful, I would like to explain the value chain and the current market dynamics that sets the stage for our path forward. Clariant's CATOFIN catalysts are used to make propylene by a fast-growing on-purpose production method called propane dehydrogenation, PDH. Our partner, Lummus Technology, is Clariant's sole partner to provide all plant technology and process design for CATOFIN catalysts.
The global demand for propylene outpaces supply and is primarily driven by the high demand for polypropylene, a versatile polymer used in products like car bumpers, food packaging, and medical applications. Polypropylene is not only recyclable, but it's also light and durable, resistant to many chemicals, and cost efficient. This makes the perfect solution for metal replacement in cars to improve fuel efficiency with lightweight plastics and to produce efficient, recyclable packaging. Because traditional technologies like steam crackers only produce propylene as a by-product, they therefore have clear limitations. Together with the higher demand of polypropylene, this leaves a major supply gap in a growing market. Historically, commercial on-purpose propylene production technologies have only accounted for less than 5% of total worldwide propylene production.
However, by 2030, on-purpose technology projects will account for over 30% of new propylene capacity coming on stream in the next few years, which gives a CAGR of over 20%. Thanks to higher yields with CATOFIN, as much as 110% of design capacity, and simpler and reliable operations with an on-stream factor of 98%, CATOFIN results in an increased overall profitability for propylene producers. These benefits are the key reason why CATOFIN technology and catalysts have won 32 new project awards since 2017. Over 75% of which are located in China. These new awards represent over 22 million tons of propylene capacity. We have a success story in winning new customers, thanks to our high performance technology. Clariant has a long and intense 50-year history in China.
To meet the very high demand in the region and to be able to quickly react to customer needs, Clariant has invested CHF 80 million in our new CATOFIN manufacturing facility in Jiaxing. Construction of said plant was concluded at the end of 2021 in only 16 months, and the ramp up is expected to take place in the first half of 2022. Although the first phase will be focused on the CATOFIN propane dehydrogenation catalyst, this facility was constructed with the potential to expand to more catalyst production in the future. Once completed, it will be Clariant's third catalyst production site in China, and is an ideal example of how we continue to support China's petrochemical industry growth as we expand our presence in the region.
CATOFIN is another excellent example of how Clariant's sustainability-driven innovation, as well as our region expansion into China, will enable us to achieve our 2025 targets. I would like to hand over to Bernd Hoegemann, who will enlighten you regarding the attractive outlook for our Exolit OP flame retardants.
Ladies and gentlemen, I would also like to extend a warm welcome to you. I will be taking you through two of Clariant's key sustainability-driven growth projects to more clearly portray where we expect to see solid organic expansion, supported by significant CapEx investments. Clariant's additives portfolio addresses the most significant mega trends of our global economy, such as transportation, e-mobility, connectivity, digitization and urbanization, among others. The first growth project I have the pleasure to present to you relates to halogen-free flame retardants, a core Clariant additive offering that addresses many of the aforementioned mega trends. What is the core function of flame retardants? Flame retardants help to save lives. Flame retardants are used in anything ranging from foams and curtains to car seats and buildings. Should a fire start, flame retardants might be able to stop it completely or slow it down.
Most importantly, reduce toxicity and density of smoke, thereby providing a substantial contribution to safety in our everyday life. Clariant's phosphorus-based flame retardants, sold into our markets under the brand name Exolit, has an excellent sustainability profile. Besides being halogen-free, a basic requirement for sustainability-focused solutions, our Exolit products are manufactured using 100% green electricity. They are recyclable, and their fossil-based ethylene content is substitutable by biomass-based ethylene, following mass balancing principles. Third-party assessments have confirmed Exolit's advantages and environmental health profile. Exolit therefore carries our EcoTain label. We have pursued a very comprehensive patent strategy in order to protect this outstanding technology for Clariant and its customers. The current portfolio of 50 active patent families covering products, processes, and applications form a long-lasting global network of IP rights, which has already shown a high degree of enforceability.
Our Exolit portfolio enjoys participation in significant growth markets, mostly driven by electrification and innovation in connectivity and mobility industries. For flame retardants, e-mobility presents the greatest opportunity for growth. The total number of e-vehicles has already reached approximately 10 million units in 2020 and is forecasted to exceed approximately 100 million units by 2030. Flame retardant applications are spread across the entire car, for example, in battery housing and connectors, and also in the rapidly growing charging infrastructure. Our Exolit's outstanding flame retardant performance makes thermoplastics and thermosets, like polyamide, polyester, epoxy resins, perfectly fitting materials for a broad range of e-vehicle specific applications. Exolit flame retardants are also well-positioned in strongly growing consumer electronic applications, including smartphones, tablets, and personal computers. We expect to have an even stronger presence in the Internet of Things and 5G equipment.
Because of their high efficiency, Exolit flame retardants can be utilized in thin and small parts, and therefore support the ongoing miniaturization trend. With key growth markets developing in Asia, we have decided to invest approximately CHF 60 million in a significant capacity build-up in China. We expect our Daya Bay plant in Southern China to expand our footprint in the region, particularly with its ability to support fast-growing application, including e-mobility, transportation, 5G equipment, and consumer electronic applications. We expect this plant to ramp up production in the first half of 2023 and to expand at a double-digit CAGR. Exolit OP is a second prime example of how Clariant invests into sustainability-driven growth, supported by capacity expansion in China. Let me now walk you through yet another key growth project of Clariant sunliquid process.
The almost energy self-sufficient sunliquid process is an excellent example of a circular economy solution. Instead of being discarded or burned in the fields, agricultural residues are utilized without any environmental risk to produce second-generation bioethanol. Second-generation bioethanol addresses key challenges, such as emission-free mobility in car or even air traffic, and enables the production of downstream industrial and consumer products comprised of renewable feedstock. I'd like to begin by providing you with the following quick overview of our fully integrated, nearly energy self-sufficient process. The sunliquid process starts with agricultural residues such as cereal straw, corn stover, sugarcane bagasse, or woody biomass originating from renewable resources. Our completely integrated process can be divided into the following four major technological steps. In the first step, the straw is shredded and thermally pretreated to open the stable lignocellulosic structure.
This makes it easier for the enzymes added in the second production step to address the sugar chains. Our pretreatment process has been optimized so that the need for any chemicals could be eliminated. In the second step, enzymes are added to the pretreated straw to liquefy and split its cellulosic and hemicellulosic components into different sugar types. Enzymes act as biocatalysts to break up the long cellulose chains into fermentable C5 and C6 sugars. The insoluble woody component of the straw, lignin, is separated to generate energy which is used to operate the plant. At our Podari plant in Romania, for example, our partner GETEC Group will use this residue lignin to supply the plant with CO2-neutral steam and electricity. In the third step, the C5 and C6 sugars are simultaneously fermented into ethanol in a one-pot reaction.
Our proprietary yeast strain is specifically modified and adapted to these conditions, leading to a 50% higher ethanol yield compared to standard yeasts. In the final step, a highly optimized purification process removes the water to yield pure ethanol. The remaining byproduct left over is the vinasse, which can be processed into biogas for energy production or used as an organic fertilizer and returned to the fields. Clariant has invested approximately CHF 240 million in our newly constructed plant in Podari, Romania. It is the first commercial sunliquid cellulosic ethanol plant in the world.
The plant will begin producing the enzymes utilized by the production process in November of this year, and the production ramp up of the bioethanol is anticipated in the first half of 2022. Once it is fully operational, the plant will process 250,000 tons of straw per year, producing 50,000 tons of cellulosic ethanol annually. What do 50,000 tons of feedstock translate into? A sunliquid plant with an output of 50,000 tons of ethanol per year, like Clariant's plant in Romania, can help avoid around 120,000 tons of CO2 emissions per year, equivalent to the annual CO2 emissions of approximately 35,000 cars. The feedstock for the startup has been secured by contracting more than 300 local farmers under a multi-year agreement.
Podari is well-positioned to source the feedstock locally within a 50-100 km radius to ensure the sustainability of advanced biofuels. Globally, the targeted share of advanced biofuels is increasing. In Europe alone, the Renewable Energy Directive III will increase the advanced biofuel demand in the EU to 10-11 million tons in 2030, of which 2-3 million tons are expected to come from cellulosic ethanol. Our Podari plant was built to demonstrate the scalability and commercial viability of our production process to enhance the sale of licenses for our sunliquid technology worldwide. Clariant targets three different revenue streams. The first sunliquid revenue stream comprises the sale of the Podari plant production. The offtake of the entire annual production output of this plant is contracted to a major global oil and gas corporation under a multi-year agreement.
The second revenue stream includes licensing revenues linked in part to our customers' progress in completing their construction projects. We expect the lighthouse production facility in Podari to drive license business growth once the plant becomes fully operational. Because the starter enzyme cultures which are required for the production of bioethanol are consumed during the production process, the third revenue stream consists of the recurring revenue from the sales of these starter cultures. Next to serving as advanced biofuel, bioethanol has the potential to be used as a building block for the future production of bio-based chemicals as feedstock for a variety of downstream products in industrial and consumer markets. sunliquid is a pioneering technology, not only in Europe, but also globally. We believe that this technology will significantly support the global efforts to reduce CO2 emissions and to fight climate change.
It will therefore be a key driver of Clariant's business and a cornerstone of our future growth. I would now like to hand it over to my colleague, Hans Bohnen, who will provide you with a brief overview of the chemistry behind the transformation of biomass into bioethylene and derivatives.
Thank you, Bernd. As you know, our sunliquid production process begins with cellulosic sugars won from biomass, which are converted into bioethanol. Following along the process chain, bioethanol can be converted into bioethylene, which is the basis of the next key growth project, which I would like to discuss, the wider range of bio-based and fully segregated surfactants and ethylene oxide derivatives. I would like to explain how our Vita brand helps reduce fossil carbon and allows our customers to enhance their move to green carbon surfactants. Via our joint venture with India Glycols Limited, we have formed Clariant IGL Specialty Chemicals, called CISC. This business strengthens our core portfolio and makes Clariant one of the leaders in green ethylene oxide derivatives. By combining India Glycols' renewable bioethylene oxide derivatives business with Clariant's local, industrial, and consumer specialty business in India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Nepal.
The goal of our CISC business is to be the leading supplier of these renewable materials to consumer care markets worldwide. Thanks to this business, we can provide our customers access to 100% bio-based EO derivatives. By offering a segregated supply chain, our customers will benefit from truly sustainable raw materials that considerably reduce the CO2 impact of their products, thus helping them to achieve their environmental goals. There's a high demand for ethylene oxide derivatives for rapidly growing consumer care markets in India and neighboring countries, mainly driven by increased consumption and the general sophistication of consumer care formulations. Outside of South Asia, the growth drivers are different, but also very important. There's a high demand for bio-based ingredients in Europe and the U.S., driven by the consumer care market pursuing high renewable carbon content formulations.
Specifically in Europe, driven by Scope 3 CO2 reduction initiatives from customers, we see an opportunity for our joint venture product portfolio, which has a lower carbon footprint versus fossil-based ingredients. Vita range products are natural, 100% bio-based on green carbon bioethanol from plants such as sugarcane and straw. Our Vita technology, therefore, sets a new standard in green production. Of vital importance to our customers is Clariant's ability to supply from a segregated green value chain, from the respective plant to the Vita range surfactant. Clariant has guaranteed that 100% of the Vita products are derived from renewable sources. With Vita, only one aspect of the product actually changes, and that is the green content or renewable carbon index of the surfactant.
In the case of the example product provided to you on the slide, Genapol LA 070, its RCI for fossil-based ethylene oxide of 47% increases significantly to a 100% RCI for our Vita range-based products. It is important to note that the chemistry itself remains exactly the same. The use of Clariant's Vita range surfactants also maximizes the green carbon content of the customer's end product, thereby improving its RCI. Using the example of a laundry detergent formulation, the RCI of a final product can be increased from 32% to 98% by using Vita range surfactants with the same proven product effectiveness. The use of Vita range surfactant generates not only environmental benefits, but also allows our customers to differentiate themselves. By promoting these products as environmentally friendly, green, and eco-labeled attributes, price premiums can be achieved based on these additional ethical assets.
An additional positive attribute of Vita range surfactants is the fact that they are low carbon due to the carbon negative biogenetic building blocks. While fossil-based ethylene oxide increases CO2 emissions, bio-based ethylene oxide actually reduces carbon emissions due to the biogenetic carbon uptake. By not using fossil-based ethylene oxide, our Vita range surfactants eliminate from the value chain approximately 3,000 equivalent barrels of crude oil per 1,000 tons of surfactants applied by the customer. With each ton of Vita range surfactants used, a considerable amount of fossil resources are replaced. Ladies and gentlemen, Clariant India Glycols Specialty Chemicals will provide a sustainable range of surfactants and ethylene oxide derivatives. High double-digit kilotons of green ethylene oxide derivatives will be made available by CISC in the first quarter of 2022.
We expect CISC to become one of the leaders in green ethylene oxide derivatives and be a leading supplier of these renewable materials to the rapidly growing consumer care market in India, neighboring countries, and worldwide. The Vita range will focus on high growth Care Chemicals end markets, and early adopters. We are currently investigating the possibilities of supplying the Vita range of surfactants from additional sites via mass balance or fully segregated approaches. An R&D review of our entire surfactants portfolio is underway with respect to the ability of converting it from a petrochemical platform to a green platform. We are convinced that this sustainability-driven innovation will support the global efforts to reduce CO2 emissions and to fight climate change.
We have shared these four key sustainability-driven innovations with you to provide you with tangible examples of Clariant's ongoing developments, products, and projects which are driving Clariant's organic growth and will enable us to meet the targets we have set for 2025. Let me now hand over to our CFO, Stephan Lynen, who will put our growth initiatives and investments into a financial perspective. Ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon. Building on the growth stories of my colleagues, I will now provide you with some financial insights into Clariant's path of profitable growth and capital discipline. At Clariant, we are committed to increase value for our shareholders. Greater chemistry between people and planet translates into our strategy. Focus on our customers, deliver innovative chemistry, expand our leading position in sustainability, and engage our people.
The execution of our strategy will enable us to meet our new financial targets, a compound annual growth rate of 4%-6%, an EBITDA margin range of 19%-21%, and a free cash flow conversion ratio of around 40% by 2025. Despite a challenging environment, we will successfully improve our margin levels to a range between 16%-17% EBITDA for the group by the end of 2021. Our ambition is to take this corridor to the next level, to an EBITDA group margin range of 19%-21% by 2025.
This new target represents an upgrade to the previously provided implied group EBITDA margin guidance of 18%-20%, which was based on our previous midterm business area EBITDA margin ambitions. We will reach these previous business area profitability targets within the 2025 time horizon. We will drive the margin improvement into the 19%-21% range by utilizing the following two levers. Growth will leverage by around two-thirds, while efficiency improvements will contribute by approximately 1/3. Let me first elaborate on the anticipated growth contribution. As Conrad mentioned, Clariant previously announced portfolio transformation is approaching completion with the upcoming closing of the pigments divestment at the beginning of 2022. Our core portfolio has proven its specialty DNA via the strong performance improvement in the last 12 months, with sales of approximately CHF 4.2 billion and an EBITDA margin of 16.3%.
Our high quality portfolio operates across diverse growing end markets, and as a consequence, is more resilient and less volatile compared to our pre-transformation portfolio. With around 40% of sales in consumer-facing applications, 23% of sales in chemical processes, primarily our catalysts, and around 37% of sales in specialty industrial applications as of 2020, we are well set to grow our business in excess of the 2.5% market growth and to increase our operating leverage. Our growth will be amplified by the use of differentiated steering and via our focused allocation of capital and resources. Sustainability-driven innovation supports the average annual growth by approximately 1%, with a focus on bio-based products enabling decarbonization and circularity. With reference to the excellent flame retardant case study, I'd like to provide some additional insights into our Exolit products.
These are products that provide a market-leading sustainability performance. Almost 200 products are currently labeled EcoTain after having undergone a systematic in-depth screening process along 36 criteria. This number has tripled since we first introduced the designation in 2015. The current revenue contribution from EcoTain labeled products of around CHF 300 million is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate in excess of 10%. Another important growth driver is the regional expansion, in particular in China as the main growth region, contributing around 1% to the average annual sales growth. By allocating approximately 35% of growth CapEx to China, we expect the sales share for the group to grow to around 14% by 2025 versus the current 10% contribution. Clariant focus on organic value creation will continue to be augmented by our preparedness to execute potential bolt-on M&A transactions.
The two previously announced transactions in Care Chemicals, CISC, our joint venture in India and Beraca in Brazil, will positively impact the top line of a combined sales contribution of 0.75% average annual growth. After substantiating the growth contribution, let me now lay out the efficiency contribution. We are currently executing one of science's largest, most comprehensive performance programs in its history. In total, we are targeting eliminating costs of approximately a quarter of a billion CHF, of which around 100 million are focused on remnant cost elimination. Around 30 million affect discontinued operations, and 110 million accrete to the core. Regarding the latter, today, we are upgrading our saving ambition by a substantial additional 60 million CHF until 2025, compared to our initial 50 million CHF savings plan. Let me break this down.
The rightsizing program was primarily focused on the elimination of remnant costs of around CHF 100 million post the expiration of transitory service agreements for the master batches and pigments divestments. The extended rightsizing program now also encompasses the reduction of complexity, the drive for automation, and the leveraging of shared service centers. These additional activities are expected to accrete CHF 30 million savings to the core. The remnant cost elimination and accretion include the reduction and transfer of approximately 1,200 positions and indirect spend reduction. The previously announced efficiency programs in the core business to refocus SG&A and R&D will generate cost savings of CHF 50 million by 2022, as announced in 2020. During the implementation, we have been able to expand the efficiency programs cost savings by an additional CHF 30 million from production, process, and supply chain optimization.
The total efficiency saving of CHF 80 million include the reduction of more than 600 positions and lower indirect spend. The three components comprise our current performance programs, which will generate the total expected cost elimination of approximately CHF 240 million, of which CHF 60 million will benefit the core between 2022 and 2025. The additional cost for the program will not significantly exceed the provisions already made. We expect to increase the return on invested capital to exceed the cost of capital as early as 2021, trading at par to cost of capital already by mid-2021. This achievement is anchored by Clariant's return to revenue growth, the corresponding higher operating margin, lower non-operating costs, and improving capital returns. We, as a management team, are committed to value creation by further increasing our return on invested capital profile.
We expect CapEx of approximately CHF 350 million by 2021 due to the two major ongoing growth investment projects, the second-generation bioethanol sunliquid plant in Romania and the construction of the propane dehydrogenation CATOFIN plant in China. CapEx in 2022 is likely to remain high due to the phasing of existing projects and capturing new growth opportunities from higher customer demand like Depal. Going forward towards 2025, we expect CapEx to normalize in the range of CHF 280 million-CHF 320 million. This includes more than 50% growth CapEx and stepping up investments to average CHF 30 million annually for sustainability measures focusing on greenhouse gas emission reduction. As a result of our profitable growth, together with our capital discipline, we expect to report sustainably improved cash conversion in the midterm.
We are strongly committed to capital and cost discipline and expect free cash flow conversion around 40% toward 2025. In terms of deploying capital to generate growth, we will continue to focus on investments in Clariant's most attractive businesses such as Care Chemicals, catalysts, and additives, and regions like China. We will prioritize ROIC-accreting projects. Following higher CapEx levels in 2021 and 2022, we expect to return to a normalized run rate range of CHF 280 million-CHF 320 million toward 2025. The focus of our inorganic growth targets is dedicated to value creating bolt-on acquisitions to complement existing segments and technologies and expand our differentiated offering while generating a positive sustainability impact. The recent bolt-ons in India and Brazil reflect our successful adherence to these criteria.
We will ensure the disciplined execution of any potential transaction to enable value creation, by which we mean realizing especially revenue synergies and accreting our return on invested capital. M&A will be part of our growth strategy going forward and will be clearly dedicated to strengthening Clariant's core and value creation for all our shareholders. Clariant will continue to provide superior capital returns in the form of reliable, sustainably growing dividends. Capital will be deployed, including potential M&A, in such a way that Clariant Group can achieve and defend a solid investment-grade rating. Our commitments to profitable growth and capital discipline would not be complete without our dedication to sustainably sharing our success and value creation with our shareholders. Clariant has consistently increased its dividends by approximately 7% per annum from 2015 till 2019.
The 2020 capital distribution for the full year 2019 was earmarked by uncertainties surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic. This caused us to focus on the extraordinary cash distribution of 3 Swiss francs per share paid out in 2020. With the completion of the Masterbatches divestment and the anticipated divestment of Pigments, the payments of the ordinary dividends for 2020 was postponed. In 2021, a total cash amount of 70 rappen per share was distributed, a combination of 55 rappen for 2019 and 15 rappen for 2020. While the divestments of approximately 1/3 of the company's sales have led to a recalibration in absolute amount of the dividends, Clariant's dividend policy remains unchanged. Clariant is committed to increasing the absolute dividend in Swiss francs on the back of profitable growth while maintaining an attractive payout ratio. Ladies and gentlemen, today, we shared our ambitious financial targets until 2025 with the capital markets.
I am convinced that our specialty portfolio with attractive end market positions, our sustainability and innovation power to support our customers across the planet, and our committed, dedicated people will assure the successful execution to reach these targets. I look forward to reporting on our progress on a continuous basis and hand back to Conrad for his final remarks.
This brings us to the end of our presentations. I hope we were able to give you a good understanding of our purpose-led growth strategy and our financial ambitions to increase shareholder value. To conclude, I would like to reiterate the key points of our presentations. Our purpose, greater chemistry between people and planet, is at the core of everything we do. Clariant is already a leader in sustainability today, and our new targets make sure we will continue to be a leader tomorrow. Our growth will be driven by customer-centric, sustainability-driven innovation, by growth investments in China, and by focused and value-creating bolt-on M&A. We are committed to deliver top quartile performance in terms of growth, profitability, people, and sustainability, and this is reflected in our new 2025 midterm targets.
I would like to end this presentation by first thanking all of our people for the great performance I've seen in the company this year. The growth and success of our business, the development of sustainable and innovative products, and our emphasis on customer centricity all have one key aspect in common, putting people at the core of Clariant's purpose and building a culture of possibilities. As a business leader, I'm strongly convinced that we can only achieve and exceed our goals by intently putting emphasis on our people, shaping a high performance and entrepreneurial culture, engaging a diverse, engaged, and talented workforce. Finally, creating an inclusive environment where all feel valued and empowered to contribute, and where we all can develop our talents to the maximum potential. With that, I would like to end our presentations.
Thank you for your attention, and I would now like to open it up for your questions. Thank you.
Thank you, Conrad, and thank you to the entire executive team. Ladies and gentlemen, that brings us to the Q&A session. We have established a Microsoft Teams platform that allow analysts and investors to ask questions. Those on the platform are kindly asked to turn on their cameras when asking a question and mute their microphones once the answer is given. Please use the raise hand and the chat function if you would like to ask a question. We will call on you individually and kindly ask you to ensure that the camera is on, and then your microphone is unmuted. Before we open the line, let me kindly request to limit the number of questions to two, thus providing more participants the opportunity to raise questions.
Thank you for your understanding, and feel free to sign up for follow-up questions. Let's get started. Open the line, and the first question comes from Christian Faitz. Christian, the line is open.
Thank you, Andreas. Two questions, please. First a question for Conrad. Conrad, now that you are with the company for about a year, what have you discovered at Clariant that you were not aware of before you started your position? Obviously, on the positive side, but if you want to share with us a negative, that would also be appreciated. Second of all, I am known for asking questions outside of the context, so outside of the context of a CMD. Mindful that your Q3 results call was not too long ago, but could you give us an update of the current environment, particularly pertaining to raw materials and logistical challenges? Do you have a view when these challenges will ease into 2022? Thank you.
Yeah. Christian, thank you for kicking off our Q&A with these two questions. First, on my observations in the company in the last year. I have been very impressed with the depth of innovation in the company. I've been very impressed with the link between innovation and sustainability. I was aware of this good reputation, strong reputation that Clariant has in this area. If you really look at it from the inside, if you talk to our colleagues day in, day out, talking to clients, they're actually all very enthusiastic about the two innovative products that Clariant actually has to offer. On your second question, as far as the trading update, as you are aware, we're not giving a trading update.
During the third quarter results call, we gave an outlook for the year where we basically stepped up our revenue guidance from 7%-9% to 9%-11% for this year, as well as a continued outlook of EBITDA margins between 16%-17%. I have no reason to say anything different than at the time of the Q3 call. We're confirming this outlook, basically. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you, Christian. We have the next question from Andrew Stott. Andrew, please go ahead.
Yeah, hi. Good afternoon. Thanks for taking my two questions, and thank you for the presentations today. The first one's on sustainability. You said that in 2020 your revenues had 20% from bio-based chemicals. Can you share a target for 2025? And sort of within that, when I think about Romania and the ramp, do I think you start seeing meaningful contributions from Romania in the second half of 2022? It just sounded like it, the way it was communicated on the ramp up during the first half. Just a clarification of that. The second question was a bit of an education for me on the Catalysis business.
When I think about the ammonia and methanol business and the energy transition, how do I think about the revenue potential for Clariant? Do you make more money out of an SMR, or do you make more money out of the green ammonia process? Thank you.
Sure. Thank you, Andrew, for those questions. Well, first, I'm gonna make a few comments about our bio-renewable solutions and their contributions to our current sales as well as to our future sales. Then I'll pass to Hans the question you had on catalyst, and in particular, the role syngas plays, also towards the future with developments like green ammonia. For us today, if you look at our revenue, 20% of it already represents products that basically are either bio-based or bio-renewable. Where this is most important is actually in our Care Chemicals business. Just as a reminder, large clients like Unilever in personal care have made public statements to basically want to shift away from fossil-based feedstock to completely bio-renewable feedstock by 2030. Clariant is very well positioned for this development.
We do have products that are fully plant-based already. Think of the Beraca acquisition, where we use, for example, clays, oils from the Amazon as ingredients for cosmetics. We also have products that are based on renewable feedstock. What is a very important factor here is our recent joint venture with India Glycols, where we have access now to 100% bio-renewable based bioethanol, in this case, ethylene oxide. It allows us actually to convert all the ethoxylated surfactants to bio-renewable. Today, roughly 20% of our revenue, we do expect this to increase towards the 2025 numbers, but we're not giving specific guidance on how big the increase will be. Hans, to you for the catalyst question.
Yes. Thank you, Conrad. On the ammonia, there are two aspects to this. Gray ammonia, of course, for us is and will continue to be a growth business, and we invest into the technology, for good reason, because the ammonia production is the biggest emitting technology for CO2 in the field of catalysts. What we can do today to increase efficiency helps immediately to reduce CO2 emission. That is a focus and focal point of us today. Going forward, of course, green ammonia plays an important role, first of all, of course, also to reduce CO2. Second, it's also a vehicle to transport hydrogen, green hydrogen.
Both aspects for us are beyond 25%, a growth opportunity, and we invest here into innovation in order to be able to deliver on these technologies going forward.
There is still the question on Romania.
Yeah, in terms of Romania, there is a revenue stream which basically has three components. The first is our revenue from the production of bioethanol. We have a revenue stream from license income, and finally, we have a revenue stream from enzymes for start-up cultures. We haven't given a breakdown between the three of them. As to your question, what to expect next year, let's be aware that we're commissioning the plants, that actually this will take into the first half of next year to really get the plants up and running to produce the second-generation bioethanol. This is the first of its kind. We're very confident about the ramp-up, but yeah, for next year you should basically not expect too much revenue yet in the first half of the year from Romania.
Thank you.
You're welcome.
Thank you, Andrew. We open up the line now for Markus Mayer. Markus, your questions.
Yeah, good afternoon, gentlemen. I have two questions. The first one is on your midterm targets, and the second one is on your Vita brand. Regarding your midterm targets, should we expect this growth to be back-end loaded, as two percentage points are coming, one basically from new innovative products, but the other one from the regional expansion, I guess. The CapEx investments will need some time until we see these effects there. That's my first question on this, if the growth is back-end loaded. The second question is on your Vita brand. Where is the cost curve of this product versus oil-based products? Do you need a green premium for this product, or is this already at a level where you basically can compete with the existing technology?
Yes, Markus, thanks for these two questions. The question around Vita brand, the 100% bio-based surfactants, I'll leave that to Hans to comment. I will try to answer your question on growth and how to see the phasing over the years up to 2025. On balance, it is about a steady linear build-up, but there is different factors that play a role into this. First, for next year, into next year, we still see a Corona recovery. We see a continuation of the strong growth that we are experiencing this year. After next year, we should expect underlying markets to come back to their sort of historic CAGR.
Actually you will see the ramp-up, further ramp-up I should say, of sustainability-based products that we introduce on the one hand, also of plants coming up on stream and running new CapEx plants that are in the plan. The most significant one is our cathode feed plant that we will start up early next year in China. That will be a strong contributor. Actually towards the back end of the planning horizon, you'll see a contribution as well from our new flame retardant plant, again in China. Hans, to you on the Vita surfactants.
Thank you. Yeah, Markus, I'll give you two answers on this. First of all, on the, let's say, standard products we have and we serve our joint venture in India, the joint venture is in the market since decades, so they are very competitive compared to fossil-based EO and EO derivatives in the Indian market. When it comes to now a transformation of the portfolio more towards personal care products, of course, here we also expect, because of the innovation we have to put into this, that these products will go into the market with a certain premium because as also it's new, it's kind of first of its kind product portfolio we are offering, and this one also should go with a premium. Both is true and relevant.
First, we are competitive compared to fossil-based EO derivatives. Second, because of the innovation we'll put into this, there we expect, that the market is prepared to take a premium.
May I ask add-on question?
Yes, sure.
On the answer?
Yes, go ahead, Markus.
On this premium, if you compare your products with products which are, for example, based on palm oil, which are marketed green but definitely are not green, can you shed some light on this kind of premium? Is it similar to those kind of products or is it ahead of this kind of price point of palm oil-based products?
Yeah. I mean, as you have seen in my presentation, what we have in the combination of the bio-based EO plus the certified palm oil, the combination of this gives you 100% renewable surfactants, which is unique. Therefore, I think it justifies also that we can ask for a premium as we offer this solely to the market.
Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Markus. The line is now open for Nicola Tang. Nicola, please go ahead.
Hello, everyone, and thanks for the presentation. I wanted to ask two questions. The first, you mentioned, CapEx related to your sustainability targets, the CHF 30 million per annum. I was wondering if you could give a little bit more detail, as to what that is or examples of where that would be spent. And the second question, actually following on from Markus' questions around the bioethylene, oxide derivatives, could you put that, high double-digit kilotons in the context of your overall, capacity? And, you mentioned you're looking at ways to switch some of your other sites into using green chemistry. Could you talk about the kind of key hurdles? I'm thinking, you know, in terms of the required investment, but also in terms of the barriers to entry. Thank you.
Sure. Thank you, Nicola for that question. I'll ask Stephan to comment on CapEx. I'll make a few comments on bio-renewable, and particularly the capacity for ethylene oxide derivatives, green ethylene oxide derivatives. The interesting thing is that through the acquisition of our share in India Glycols, their EO derivatives business, we have direct access to capacity for ethylene oxide derivatives. We will use this capacity to actually basically supply these products also in Europe, where there is a strong demand for those products. If you look longer term, what we have as a big opportunity is to convert the existing ethylene oxide derivative plants that we have in Europe, in Gendorf, to convert that to a feedstock which is basically fully bio-renewable based.
We do have the opportunity to convert without additional CapEx an existing line who's now fossil based completely to renewable based feedstock. We have the advantage that we have two EO lines running in parallel there, and we can actually gradually move into this new market. It is an interesting opportunity from a CapEx point of view. Stephan, to you further on the sustainability CapEx and some of the components.
Sure, Conrad. As you know, we've been guiding for a run rate of our future CapEx around CHF 280 million-CHF 320 million. We've added CHF 30 million for what we call sustainability CapEx, but purely focusing on greenhouse gas emission reduction. We have obviously more CapEx in that range, which we spend for sustainability, as for example, sunliquid is heavily improving the handprint of our customers, and many other investments are. We have really framed that CHF 30 million because it comes in addition to the former guidances, and it focuses on the greenhouse gas emission reduction in our direct Scope 1 and 2, to contribute, as Conrad mentioned in his speech, to our commitment to stop the climate change.
Would you have any specific examples of what that CapEx might be?
Yes, sure. It is CapEx which is used for lowering the emission in our plants and our production. It is improving the yield in processes, the energy efficiency, et cetera. It is really in our infrastructure in-house to lower the emission, greenhouse gas emission.
Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Nicola. We open up the line now to Andreas Heine. Andreas, please go ahead.
Thanks for having the opportunity to ask a question. Can you see me now? It's a little bit slow on my screen. But I would like to ask this first, on the dividend. If I look on the chart, then it looks like that the dividend will be lower going forward. Attractive payout ratio, but lower than what we're used to, as you can comment on this. Secondly, on CapEx, the CapEx of CHF 280-CHF 320 you have said this year it will be higher, next year it will be higher. Is it then something which you might reach in one year, 2025, and will be higher before and higher later then? Or how do we have to think about this target?
If it comes to investments, these CapEx by segments, it was very much CapEx dedicated to the catalyst business, which probably is the most capital intensive one. Will that be still a focus on CapEx going forward? After this CATOFIN investment is done, is then the next big investment to be planned for the period, let's say 2023 to 2025?
Yeah, Andreas, thanks for the two questions. I'll let Stefan comment on the dividend and also provide some further detail on CapEx. Be aware on CapEx that we currently are above the CHF 280 million-CHF 320 million per annum that we're guiding for because of large projects this year, in particular our new bioethanol plant, our CATOFIN plant that comes on stream early next year, as well as actually the flame retardant plant that we're building in China. Flame retardant, CHF 60 million, CATOFIN CHF 80 million, bioethanol a total of CHF 240 million. Stefan, to you for dividend and perhaps some further detail on phasing for CapEx.
Sure. Let me first build on what you just said about the CapEx, because it is the phasing of the projects. Initially, we guided also for higher CapEx in 2021, but there is a bit of a phasing into 2022. We are in the position that there is actually stronger demand to our portfolio than we can actually complete, and therefore we have investments like Depal to come, which play a role also in 2022. Let me reassure you, and thank you really for the question, that the CHF 280 million-CHF 320 million is not a one-time event, but it's a development to that run rate, which you've seen also in the past.
We have really some more CapEx intensive years with the projects which Conrad just summarized in 2021 and 2022, but then you will see us gradually moving into that range, and not just for a single year. It plays a vital role also to our capital discipline and to our free cash flow conversion commitment, which we newly gave today with 40%. Let me talk about the dividend. I mean, at the end, free cash flow conversion is exactly what we are committing to generate the headroom for us to share the success sustainably with our shareholders, but also to create the headroom for us to operate in organic and inorganic investments. Here, you see, of course, that if you look at the 2020 paid dividends, that these were actually accumulated for two years.
For 2019 and 2020, we both paid these dividends in 2021. Now, there is a recalibration on the total dividend also after having paid the extraordinary dividend in 2020 by just the fact that we have divested or are divesting one third of our sales and turnover, and that has a recalibration to the size of the dividend in the years to come. However, we are confirming a very attractive, measurable payout ratio and an increasing dividend for the future as well, based on an improved free cash flow conversion.
I might add to this, I was not referring to last two years, which were indeed exceptional when it comes to the dividend, but to the past before, so the last, let's say, reference point would be the CHF 0.55. Is that something we can look at or will it be considerably lower and then starting from a lower level to catch up in line with your free cash flow conversion increasement?
Yeah, that is not so much related to the ability of free cash flow conversion because that will increase over time with the transformed portfolio now. Again, if you look at the 55 rappen paid out in 2019, you will notice that at this time, we were looking at a turnover of CHF 6.5 billion, and we have divested one third of this business. There is obviously a recalibration of the size of the dividend. The board will make the right suggestions for the coming AGM for the dividends, again, with future rising potential and also with a very attractive payout ratio as you have seen any time in the past.
Thanks.
Thank you, Andreas. We open up the line now for Peter Clark. Peter, the floor is yours.
Yes, good afternoon. Thank you. It's a question about SABIC. At the time of the deal, aside from the collapsed high performance materials venture, there was quite a big fanfare about potential synergies, both growth synergies, some cost synergies, raw materials, et cetera. I'm just wondering if anything did come up that I know you had a difficult period, but it seems to have settled. There were a lot of initiatives going on. Just seeing if there's any benefit of that coming through in your expectations. I guess the second question is, I think you alluded to the fact that the margin target by segment is pretty much aligned with what you had before.
I'm just making sure there's nothing material on the disposal side because you've made it quite clear you're quite happy with the portfolio. Just making sure that there isn't any sort of material disposals that are in your thinking. Thank you.
Yeah. Thank you, Peter, for those two questions. First, on SABIC. At the time, there was indeed an evaluation where the companies were looking at merging the businesses, and in this case, this was the high performance polymers business within SABIC. That actually did not transpire. The synergies that were talked about automatically also did not materialize. However, I will say SABIC, for us, for our catalyst business, remains a very important client. As far as targets by segment and as far as the scope and the portfolio that we have right now, after divesting the more, let's say, commodity type businesses like pigments, like master batches, we're very pleased with the current portfolio. These are core businesses for us, and there is no material divestments that we're working on right now. Thank you.
Okay. Thank you. Just to clarify that, I was aside from the high performance materials venture that I was thinking there's still quite a bit of a fanfare about potential initiatives and benefits from that. I gather from what you're saying, there isn't really anything dramatic.
Yeah. We value, obviously, SABIC as a strong anchor shareholder in the company. We value SABIC as a client, an important client for our catalyst business. Beyond that, there are no projects that we're working on. No. Thank you. Okay. Thank you, Peter, for your question. The next question comes from Chetan Udeshi. Chetan, please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi. You know, a few questions from my side. Just following up on the previous question, can I confirm that the previous segment targets are still the same? There is no change to the previous segment targets that were given previously. Second related question was, you know, this year we've seen the catalyst margin, you know, much weaker than in the past because of mix. How are you thinking about next year, especially, given the start-up of the sunliquid plant, will that have any implication on the margin and the mix for the catalyst business in 2022? The third question was more around the definition of free cash flow conversion. Can I confirm that it's not including the
Net interest costs and cash leases, which I understand are sitting in the cash flow from financing line. You know, it would be useful if you can just quantify how much is the current run rate of those interest and lease costs now, post the divestment of the Masterbatches and the planned divestment of the Pigments business. You know, I think I'll stop here, and maybe if I have follow-up I'll just queue up then.
That's a handful of questions. Let me make a few comments. First, on overall target setting, and I'll let Stephan comment on segment specific targets. If you look at the overall target setting for the company, previously we did announce midterm targets, a range in EBITDA margin of 18%-20%. Today what we're announcing is a step up, a range between 19%-21%. If you look overall for the company, previously we announced a CAGR, if you add up the individual segments at the time, of roughly 6% per annum, but that did include M&A and acquisitions. Today, we're announcing a 4%-6% overall revenue target, which is basically organic growth.
The only two acquisitions that are included are India Glycols and Beraca, which effectively are representing organic growth in the planned period. I think, Stephan, I would appreciate if you comment a bit on the targets, specifically more by segment, and also on the free cash flow conversion definition, as well as the question as it related to Masterbatches. Hans, maybe you could take the question on catalyst.
Sure. Let me first build on what Conrad just said. I mean, it really is important to repeat that. This is a growth target of 4%-6% outperforming GDP. You see the exact bridge, how we get there under our influence, under our management. You've seen an EBITDA margin improvement by this 100 basis points from 18%-20% back in 2019, if you weighed it with the corporate cost at the time, to 19%-21%, so it's a step up. We've decided to do this by going also to an aggregate group level of target setting, because that gives us the more precise follow-up and communication with you on the future build-up and execution towards these targets.
We do not disclose the business area targets. That doesn't mean that they don't exist or that they're not changed. They always are, you know, a little bit changed from certain aspects, et cetera. Holistically it's a significant upgrade. Third, very important, is that we have now come up with a completely new target, given the rightful critique in the past about our ability to create free cash flow, which is the 40% free cash flow conversion. Let me say first of all, again, how we built that. First of all, we do this by growth, expanding also absolute EBITDA through growth. We do this by the saving program, which we stepped up today, again, expanding absolute EBITDA.
We will have better net working capital turns by our own steering, but as well by the divestments, because businesses like Pigments have been dilutive to our capital turns in terms of net working capital, and to our new capital discipline, which you saw on the run rate of the CapEx number. The definition of this free cash flow conversion is the cash flow from operations in our definition, minus the CapEx as a percentage of that combination towards the EBITDA. You're right, this does not include the financial part of the equation, the financing cash flow, which is the interest part paid and received, and the leasing part, which each is around CHF 50 million annually at these times.
Yeah. Thank you, Stephan. Let me talk about the catalyst business a little bit going forward into 2022. Chetan, and as you know, the catalyst business is quite volatile when it comes to market development, so the mix topic is always something you need to predict. Looking now into 2022, we see a favorable development, especially in our petrochemical segment. I mean, you have seen in my presentation along the C3 value chain, so from propane to propylene to polypropylene, that we do significant investments where we expect that this will be accretive then in 2022. That's one aspect to the business area catalyst. But your question was also referring to sunliquid and what we can expect.
Let me hand over that question to Bernd to talk a little bit about sunliquid and what we can expect in 2022 in this area.
Yeah. Thanks a lot, Hans. As already mentioned by Conrad, we're in the process of ramping up production. Actually, that will start in the first month of the coming years, and then continuously be ongoing until end of the year. We have mentioned earlier that all the volume produced has been contracted to a global oil company. Then for 2023, we really expect the full revenue stream kick in. Out of the CHF 100 million by 2025, there is a significant share coming from bioethanol production. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you, Chetan. We have a follow-up question from Markus Mayer. Markus, your line is open again.
Hello again. Maybe first add-on question on sunliquid. You basically said that you have three revenue streams. One is of course the sale of the product. The second one is the license potential license income. The third one, the enzymes business. I guess from this target you gave or this guidance you gave previously on the direct product sales of CHF 100 million, that is still in place. Can you give us also some flavor on the two other parts, the potential license, what you expect over the next years? What is baked in your guidance? Also the enzyme sales. That would be helpful. The second question basically is on the CHF 60 million additional cost savings. Can you split it up a little bit more?
You said CHF 30 million are coming from the reduction complexity, driving automation, and also leveraging shared services. Is it one-third, one-third, one-third? Or how is it split up? The other CHF 30 million savings from further 200 full-time jobs and also indirect spend reduction. Is this 50/50 or what kind of split should we expect here? Thank you.
Yeah, Markus, I'll make a brief comment about sunliquid as well as about the CHF 60 million additional cost-saving targets. Just to repeat, we're not giving detailed breakdowns between the revenue streams coming from bioethanol licensees as well as the sales from the enzymes. Bernd gave some guidance on the CHF 100 million and bioethanol being a significant part of it. Bernd, maybe you could share a bit about how your view on the licenses, new licenses coming in, and the potential for the business. As far as the new cost-saving target, the CHF 60 million is a new and additional target. I would appreciate, Stefan, if you could fill out some detail on the breakdown.
Good. Thanks, Conrad. Let me start with sunliquid. As said, the CHF 100 million is in total, so it comprises of all three revenue streams. The interest that we see in the licensing business is just amazing. Of course, there is a strong desire to see our Podari plant up and running. But we've really lined up significant interest once the plant is fully operational that we will pursue further. So over the years, the degree of licensing income and enzymes income will increase proportionally to the bioethanol production. Most importantly, all three revenue streams are accretive in terms of EBITDA to the business area Catalysis. With that, I hand it over to Stephan.
Thanks, Bernd. Yeah, let me give you the frame and then the details to the savings program, because I think it's important that you understand, Markus. First of all, we're looking here at a total dimensioning of a program which is almost a quarter of a billion Swiss francs. To be precise, CHF 240 million. There are three components in it. The first component is the right sizing, and this deals with, of course, divesting one-third of the company turnover and the simplification thereafter. We execute that after closing a sale of a business and the transitory service agreements which we still have to fulfill as long as they run after the closing of the business.
The remnant cost reduction piece, which we have already communicated back at the end of 2020, which we will address, has a dimensioning of a bit above CHF 100 million. Of course it's neutral because it just avoids the risk of stranded costs from the discontinuing business to come back to the continuing business. We are fully eliminating that, and it has a bill of around CHF 100 million. On top of that now, and this is the new part on the right sizing, we have gone through the simplification even more.
You're right, there are levers about automation of processes, simplification of structures, and taking more advantage of our shared service centers in Poland, India and China for labor arbitrage, on which we then are able to ramp up this CHF 100 million element, run-rate cost elimination to another CHF 30 million in addition, accretion to the core. This is the first part. The underlying CHF 30 million from the Right Sizing Program has news today of adding additional CHF 30 million to the core. The second piece is the Efficiency Program. There we actually go back to the beginning of 2020 when we launched the CHF 50 million savings program in the continuing business for efficiency improvement.
Again, once we've gone through the execution of the program, we have seen additional areas more into the back office part of the business' supply chain, production processes, et cetera, where we've seen additional saving potential of around CHF 30 million. Ramping up the CHF 50 million-CHF 80 million. This CHF 30 million is again news today. The CHF 30 million in the right sizing and the CHF 30 million in the efficiency program make up that CHF 60 million additional savings, which will accrete in the coming years. Finally, not least, we have another CHF 30 million saving program in the pigment business or in the discontinued business to improve, of course, the value which we get for this business. That makes up this total CHF 240 million saving program.
Good. Thank you very much, Markus. Now we have the first question from an investor. It's a pleasure to welcome Andy Schwarzwälder on the line. Andy, please go ahead.
Hey, gentlemen. I would have two questions. First, also on sunliquid. As you know, many in the industry are quite skeptical about the success of the technology of that plant. I don't really have a clue, so I would be very interested in some progress reports you can share. What kind of reports can we expect from you over the coming months regarding the plant and how it's working? Related to that
What kind of proof do your clients, the ones that already have bought a license, what kind of proofs do they need until they start their projects?
Sure, Andy. Thanks for your two important questions. I'll make some high-level comments, and then I'll pass it on to Bernd for some additional detail. If you look at the plants, let's be aware this is the first of its kind. However, we feel confident about startup because we have actually run a pilot plant in Straubing for many years, even that's even running on the same feedstock that we actually have in our plant in Romania. I would like to pass it on to you, Bernd, for some additional details, perhaps confidence levels around what will transpire in the coming months, as well as questions we're getting from our licensee holders.
Absolutely. My pleasure, Conrad. Mechanical completion has happened. That was reported to the press a couple of weeks ago. The start of the pretreatment is in process as we speak. We expect indeed, the first production of bioethanol to happen in the coming months. The exact milestones, I'm not able to share because that will depend on various factors, but we are very confident we will get there in the next month. From today's perspective, there's really no reason to assume anything different. The questions that we're getting from our prospects is, when does it start? When do we see it? And how do we get to see it?
However, based on a huge degree of confidence, there is, as I've been mentioning in my previous answer, a super strong interest to be in dialogue with us to kind of shape up the plans going forward. Therefore, we are very confident for the days to come that we'll sell significant additional licenses on top of the already sold 5 licenses. Maybe hand it back to Conrad, unless you have a follow-up question.
He has a follow-up.
Okay.
Yeah. How does that work? Does this plant has to run an entire year, an entire season, for the clients to really see it that it is indeed working? Or is one or two months enough, and then everybody knows, okay, it's really working, that technology?
Yeah. As you maybe saw from my presentations, an integrated production comprising out of four steps. I guess it's fair to say that our prospects want to see every of these four steps being in full motion, but it wouldn't take for them an entire year to be confident that the first of its kind plant, as Conrad has been saying, runs and is fully reliable.
Okay, perfect. I would have a second question. With so many products in your portfolio and so many end markets served, there's always a business, a market that is not really performing. In the past, this was always one of the major reasons why the previous targets have not been reached. How do you think about that? Or probably ask the other way around, what has to happen? What are your underlying market assumptions for you to reach these then 19% lower end? Probably also what has to happen for you to reach the 21%?
Yeah, Andy, thanks for the question. An important question. We're actually very pleased with the performance of our business right now. What you saw in our third quarter results is basically a broad demand recovery across all of the businesses and across all of the regions. The only one where we ourselves were slightly disappointed with was the performance of Catalysis. As Hans explained, this is very much a project business, and actually there can be fluctuations from quarter to quarter. Basically, referring back to your question, we're very pleased right now with the performance of the overall performance of the portfolio. The one that has been lagging a bit during Corona, obviously, was our oil services business. Even in the third quarter, we showed double-digit recovery in the oil services business as well. Thank you.
I mean, can If I can ask an add-on question on that. When we think about 2023, 2024, 2025, and you will try to reach this 19%, do all the major end markets have to be in good shape at that point? Or does the mix or have you baked in a certain security margin that even one or the other business, like for example right now, still the oil business or the catalyst mix cannot be in perfect shape and you can still reach the 19%? What kind of safety margins have you baked in?
Sure, Andy. Well, the way we build up the plan and where we came up with the 4%-6% CAGR on average until 2025, it was basically a bottom-up projection based on underlying projects from an innovation point of view, from a new CapEx point of view, and it basically was a bottom up provided by the BUs. I will share with you that the bottom-up calculation came out higher than the 4%-6% range. As management, we did take a risk adjustment over the initial inputs that we got from our BUs. We are actually confident that this is a realistic target setting, the 4%-6% CAGR on average until 2025.
Perfect. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you, Andy. Maybe to remind the analysts on that one, that does not mean that you fill your spreadsheets now above that range going forward, please. As Conrad mentioned. Just as a side remark as the IR. The next question, and it's a follow-up question from Christian Faitz. Christian, please go ahead.
Yeah, thanks, Andreas. Again, sorry to come back on sunliquid, and maybe a naive question. In terms of feedstock, you said you have around 300 contracted farmers. Yet how do you or your licensees deal with crop rotation patterns from year to year that alter the feedstock mix? And what happens to utilization rates if feedstock has limited availability due to adverse weather conditions, for example?
It's an important question, Christian. I think Bernd will fill in on some details. The availability of feedstock is obviously critical. The good news is there is an abundance of, if you call it waste from agricultural production. Just as a reminder, for the second generation bioethanol production, we're using the waste of agricultural production. Not the crop itself, but basically the leaves and everything, what have you around it. There is an abundance of availability there. For our plant in Romania, there is about 250,000 tons of straw available for this plant. Bernd, if you wanna add details there, you're welcome.
Thanks, Conrad. Maybe just to give some numbers. Let's just take the U.S. We have 400 million tons of agricultural residues available. In Europe, it's roughly 225 million tons of agricultural residues. We have done a mapping of all the European countries, and it's not a coincidence that we chose Romania because in particular in Romania, there is abundance of feedstock. Even if there were variances in terms of availability of agricultural residues, we would be able to adjust. On top, we do have a certain safety stock, and our technology is able to adjust to different feedstock qualities. If there was really a shortage to come, which is very unlikely to happen, we would be able to adjust to these changes in feedstock quality based upon the technology that sunliquid offers.
In this respect, we're not concerned.
Very helpful. Thanks.
Thank you, Christian. Let me remind you that if you want to raise a question, you can use the Raise Hand function within Teams. The next follow-up question comes from Andreas Heine. Andreas, please go ahead.
Yeah. Sorry, my camera doesn't work in that way. Two questions I have. One is on the cost savings and efficiency program. There usually you said that the charges, the regular charges on an ongoing basis, roughly 0.5% of sales. Is that still valid, or will that be a higher number in line with high ambitions on the savings? And then, secondly, I've seen on the slide that the investment for sunliquid is CHF 240 million. I had a smaller number in mind. Is that the gross number, and then you had received subsidies which have put it down, or are the CHF 240 million what will come as assets on your balance sheet with this plan being done? Thanks.
Sure, Andreas. Thanks for the question. As far as the cost savings, I think the short answer is yes, it is still valid, the 0.5%, but I'll let Stephan fill out a bit more on details here. As far as the investment is concerned, the CHF 240 million Swiss francs investment, that actually included some scope changes. It included some learnings. That is not to say that future plants should actually come in at a lower CapEx. There was a subsidy indeed, which is CHF 35 million, roughly, which we got for this investment. Stephan, to you for the further sort of breakdown of the additional cost savings program and how that will hit in terms of adjustments.
Sure. First of all, as you know, in the beginning of 2020 and at the end of 2020, we've done big provisions for the right sizing program and for the efficiency program. Now, with the expansion, of course, there might here and there be additional need while we continue the execution of the programs. Some of that is also not immediately providable because it goes hand in hand with transferring people and having maybe parallel workforces when you do the shared service centers, et cetera. You're totally right. The 0.5 percentage points, 50 basis points are the best guidance also going forward. This is our cost discipline commitment that these exceptional items are absolutely sufficient to maneuver the implementation of the savings program.
As you know, also with our EBITDA margin commitment and the 100 basis points improvement to the prior targets, we are always speaking about reported EBITDA, so all of this is included.
Thank you very much. We have got the next follow-up question again from Markus. Markus, please go ahead.
Yeah. Two add-on questions. Coming back to the dividends, sorry again for asking this theme. If you would say on the one side is the argument stable to rising dividends, and the other side would be then a certain dividend payout ratio, what is stronger for you in the future? Is it more the stable to rising dividend argument or the payout ratio? Secondly, again, to your mid-term targets, can you share, is there any kind of change in the management incentivization to these targets? Is there a higher variable part now which is linked to these targets?
Sure, Markus. The dividend question, I'll let Stephan comment on it. As far as management compensation, if you look at our LTIP, our long-term incentive program, currently today this is half based on our TSR, our performance versus peers in terms of our share price and our dividends, the TSR versus peers. The other half is based on economic profit. Moving forward, we will align our LTIP, our long-term incentive program, with our new midterm targets. This obviously is not my decision, it's a board decision, but we can expect alignment here with our new midterm targets. Stephan, to you on dividends.
Sure, Conrad. Marcus, you asked me about the priority between an attractive payout ratio and a rising dividend, and my answer is starting with neither of the two, because I tell you it's a performance improvement. That's the priority. It's growing to beat GDP with the 4%-6%, stepping up margin levels into the 19%-21%, and bringing it home with a 40% cash flow generation. Anything else follows, because this is a step up in the headroom which I mentioned. If you do that, as we shown you also how we do that individually for all of these three parameters, then giving or keeping an attractive payout ratio is automatically leading to rising dividends. That would be my answer to your question, Markus.
I'm sorry to ask again on this issue. Nevertheless, is for you then, is there maybe there is certain dividend floor that you say when you pay out a dividend, this is then the floor for the next one? Or, because there will be cycles and there will be earnings fluctuations. How should we think on your dividend policy? Is it then is there at least a floor dividend or what's kind of the. How do you want to see that the market sees Clariant? It's trying to become a dividend-paying company, a real dividend yield story, or is this too early as you're just now looking to improve your free cash flow?
No, absolutely. We will be and stay a dividend-sharing, success-sharing company. We have a strong commitment to share the success with our shareholders. Again, if you look at the past, we have seen steadily rising dividends, but that was sometimes also not when we had the free cash flow to do so. We definitely look at payout ratio first, but again, if you see our track record now of the last two years, where we've done also resilience in 2020, a significant step up in 2021, we've paid dividends for also the COVID year, then the attractive payout ratio with the performance improvement potential towards the 2025 targets solves both of the pieces of the puzzle. The payout ratio is of course defining the dividend.
We will not make anything which is not based on the earnings which we create, but we have all in hand to increase that earnings year by year.
Okay. Thank you, Markus, and it's now my pleasure to welcome someone new into the line. The next question comes from Sibylle Bischofberger. Sibylle, please go ahead.
Thank you very much, Andreas. I have a question about India Glycols. What I understand of the joint venture that it uses bioethanol of the first generation, meaning it's corn produced in the U.S. and then shipped to India. My question here is to improve the sustainability of this India Glycols, are there any plans to move to a second generation of bioethanol and to produce the bioethanol in India that transport is not needed anymore? Thank you very much.
Yeah, Sibylle, thanks for this great question. What India Glycols allows us to do is to actually supply surfactants that are 100% bio-based and renewable in terms of their feedstock. This actually is a first step in the overall sustainability journey, and indeed, we have this opportunity, I would say unique opportunity as Clariant, because we are the owners of the second-generation bioethanol technology, to indeed at some point in the future convert our ethoxylated products to second-generation bioethanol. The good thing is this would technically be a drop-in, so it wouldn't require clients to reformulate products. It is actually a rather smooth transition. This is a phased process and we're first very happy that we can offer the 100% renewable surfactants, which is already a big step up from the traditional fossil-based surfactants.
Maybe to build on that.
Thank you.
What we can do as well is to apply the sunliquid technology to a 1G production unit and convert then the residuals you have on that production unit with our sunliquid technology into second generation ethanol already. That's especially for India Glycols, but also for example the U.S. market, where you have primarily first generation ethanol producers. A very good opportunity for our sunliquid technology besides what we have in greenfield operations.
Good. Thank you, Sibylle. Well, we kicked it off with Christian Faitz, so we close it with Christian Faitz. So the last question comes from Christian Faitz.
Thanks, Andreas, again. Two questions, please. First of all, one key cost savings generator in the chemical industry is the concentration of assets at as few sites as possible, even in specialty chemicals. By divesting some of your assets in the past, you gave up this cost advantage partly. I'm thinking of your Höchst site, for example. I'm not expecting Clariant to become another mini BASF, but are you looking at asset concentration as well, in your new strategy? Then second, last year, you made a rather unusual move by going into emission reduction catalysts for two-wheelers in India. How is that business going at present, and is that activity being rolled out into other markets as well?
Sure. Thank you, Christian. The first question I'd like to answer myself, also not to cause any unnecessary anxiety within the company. No, there are no plans for site closures, and there's also, at the moment, actually there's no duplication in our footprint, so it's not a lever right now for the company. We're actually very pleased with the footprint that we have. We're even adding to it, particularly in growth regions like China. As far as the India business for two-wheelers, Hans, if you wanna add some detail.
Yeah, let me also add something to your first question. For our growth ambition and also our cost ambition we have, of course, we want to leverage our footprint, and we do so. Part of the growth, which you have seen is coming from clearly defined bottlenecking activities we have on our sites, which is one contributor to our growth. The other is if you think about now, for example, China, as I have given you an example on our catalyst greenfield site now for CATOFIN, this will be the foundation of further catalyst production units we want to then add to this production site in the future.
It's not gonna be a BASF, but it's clearly then a dedicated catalyst production site where we can capture then all the synergies. The same we have in mind when you think about our operations in China and Daya Bay. Bernd gave the example on Genapol, which then is next to our surfactants plant. Here, really, we get economy of scale, and we leverage this for cost advantages and also for then our future growth opportunities. That's on our operational footprint. On the two-wheeler business, this is for us a very nice opportunistic business, which came about two years ago, and it's contributing to our growth we have, especially in our joint venture in India. We will see how long this will last from a business opportunity point of view.
As I said, it's an opportunistic business. Our core business still of the joint venture is the catalyst business into syngas, into petrochemicals. That's where we build also on our accretive growth out of the India joint venture and Catalysis.
Okay, thanks. Thanks a lot.
Thank you. Thank you, Christian, and thank you to all the participants. We have no further questions, so therefore we conclude the Clariant's 2021 Capital Markets Day. We look forward to continuing the dialogue with you on the upcoming conferences and roadshows in the coming weeks. Feel free to reach out, obviously, to the Investor Relations team in case of any additional or further questions that come up. Thanks again to the Executive Team for presenting today and all the other Clariant colleagues that were involved in the preparation and execution of today's event. We look forward to talking to you. We thank you for joining virtually. Unfortunately, we couldn't have this in person, but next year we will have hopefully a lively discussion in person. Have a good evening.
Most important, stay healthy, and thank you again for your participation.