Producer
Elkem Silicones (Elkem ASA)
Elkem Silicones is the personal care and specialty silicone division of Elkem ASA (Oslo, Norway; Oslo Bors: ELK; ~NOK 30B revenue; ~65% owned by China National Bluestar Group / ChemChina / Sinochem Group). Elkem Silicones was Bluestar Silicones prior to Elkem ASA's 2018 acquisition of the division from China National Bluestar Group for $1.06B — making Elkem ASA (and therefore its Chinese majority owner) the fifth-largest global silicone producer. The strategic significance: China National Bluestar Group is a subsidiary of ChemChina, which was itself acquired by Sinochem Group in 2020 — all under ultimate ownership of the Chinese state. Elkem Silicones' major manufacturing facilities include Lyon-Genay (France), Roussillon (France), and Saint-Fons (France). Elkem ASA itself is unique because it is vertically integrated from quartz mining and silicon metal production (Elkem's core historical business) through silicone polymer manufacturing — making it one of the only companies that controls the full value chain from quartz to personal care dimethicone. The Norwegian government holds ~26.6% of Elkem ASA, making this company simultaneously a Norwegian state asset and a Chinese state-influenced enterprise — a geopolitically unusual corporate structure.
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Personal Care & Consumer Silicones
35%Industrial & Specialty Silicones
35%Silicone Elastomers & Rubber
20%Silicon Metal (Elkem Parent)
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Concentration2023
Elkem Silicones — a major supplier of personal care dimethicone to European cosmetics manufacturers including L'Oréal, Henkel, and Beiersdorf — is approximately 65% owned by China National Bluestar Group, a subsidiary of ChemChina, which was itself merged into Sinochem Group in 2020. Sinochem Group is a Chinese state-owned enterprise under direct Chinese Communist Party oversight. The chain of ownership: Elkem ASA (Oslo Stock Exchange) → 65% owned by China National Bluestar Group → owned by ChemChina → merged with Sinochem → SASAC (Chinese State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission). Norway's Government Pension Fund Global (the Norwegian sovereign wealth fund, world's largest) owns approximately 26.6% of Elkem ASA — meaning the world's largest sovereign wealth fund and the Chinese state are co-owners of a major European personal care silicone producer. L'Oréal Paris hair conditioners formulated with Elkem Silicones dimethicone are therefore dependent on a supply chain with Chinese state ownership at the manufacturing level. This ownership structure was established when Elkem ASA (which historically made silicon metal in Norway) acquired Bluestar Silicones from China National Bluestar Group for $1.06B in 2018 — creating a reverse scenario in which a Norwegian company acquired a Chinese state enterprise's silicone division, but the Chinese state remained the controlling shareholder of the acquiring Norwegian company.
Elkem ASA ↗Did you know2023
Elkem's Norwegian silicon metal smelters produce metallurgical-grade silicon that is simultaneously the feedstock for: silicone polymer manufacturing (the silicone chemistry that goes into personal care, industrial, and medical applications) AND solar-grade silicon for photovoltaic panels (through further purification, metallurgical silicon becomes the polysilicon used in solar panel wafers). Elkem operates the Salten smelter (Norway) which sells both into the silicone value chain and into solar panel supply chains depending on purity grade achieved and market prices. When solar panel demand surges (as during the rapid PV buildout in the 2010s-2020s), silicon metal prices rise, which increases costs for the silicone industry — the personal care and semiconductor silicone supply chain competes for the same Norwegian silicon metal production as the renewable energy supply chain. Elkem's vertically integrated structure means it can arbitrage between silicone and solar applications based on which market offers better returns for a given silicon purity grade — creating a unique linkage between the green energy transition (solar panels) and the beauty industry (silicone hair conditioner) through Norwegian hydroelectric smelters.
Elkem ASA ↗Origin2023
Elkem ASA was founded in 1904 in Christiania (now Oslo), Norway by Sam Eyde — a Norwegian engineer and industrialist who recognized that Norway's extraordinary hydroelectric power resources (the country's steep rivers and high precipitation created Europe's most abundant cheap electricity) could underpin energy-intensive electrometallurgical industries. Eyde built Norway's first large-scale electric arc furnace for silicon and ferroalloy production, establishing the electrometallurgical industry that still powers Norway's industrial economy. The name Elkem derives from "elektrisk kemikal" (electrical chemical). Elkem is genuinely unique among silicone producers in being vertically integrated from quartz rock mining through silicon metal smelting to silicone polymer manufacturing: no other silicone company owns its entire raw material supply chain from the earth. In 2018, China National Bluestar Group acquired Elkem ASA (which had already acquired France's Rhodia Silicones to enter the silicone polymer business) — placing a Norwegian state-history industrial company under Chinese state corporate ownership, while the Norwegian government retained a 26.6% stake. Elkem is now simultaneously: a Norwegian hydroelectric industrial legacy, a French silicone producer (Lyon-Genay and Roussillon plants), and a Chinese state-owned enterprise asset.
Elkem ASA ↗