Heraeus Covantics Overview
Heraeus Covantics is one of the world's oldest and most technically complete producers of high-purity quartz glass and synthetic fused silica, with a lineage that runs back to the first commercial melting of bubble-free quartz glass in Hanau in 1899. It covers every major route to high-purity silica: electric fusion and flame fusion of natural quartz, synthetic soot and vapour-deposition processes, and fluorine-doped and specialty grades. On these it builds semi-finished products (ingots, tubes, rods, plates, cylinders, preforms) and finished system components. Its customers are semiconductor equipment makers and fabs (diffusion, deposition, etch and lithography quartzware and optics), optical fiber producers (telecom preform cylinders and tubes, specialty fiber preforms, and now hollow core fiber), and laser, optics, fusion-research and space customers. Formed in 2025 by merging Heraeus Conamic and Heraeus Comvance, it sits in the Heraeus Group's Semiconductor & Electronics business area. Its edge comes from materials purity, process breadth and a long-standing joint-venture network with Shin-Etsu in Asia. Its current growth drivers are AI-driven data-center connectivity (it is co-developing and scaling hollow core fiber with Microsoft) and a localised China capacity build-out.
What the company does. Heraeus Covantics makes and processes high-purity quartz glass, synthetic fused silica, and related high-end materials such as ceramics and composites. In its own words, it manufactures semi-finished products, complex system components and custom-tailored solutions made of quartz glass, fused silica and ceramic materials. These go into data transmission and telecommunications, specialty optical fibers for industrial and medical use, semiconductor manufacturing and optical applications. The Heraeus Group describes the business as a technology leader and leading-edge materials specialist for the industry's highest-purity fused silica.
Company's own description (Heraeus Group, 2025). Heraeus describes the formation of Heraeus Covantics as a step to expand its technology leadership in making and processing high-purity quartz, fused silica, ceramics and composites. Management called it the creation of "a global powerhouse" that combines its capabilities and aligns them more closely with market requirements and customer needs.
Independent characterization. Heraeus Covantics is a vertically integrated specialty-materials producer. It controls the melting and synthesis of high-purity silica and adds value by forming, machining, welding and finishing. Its revenue is almost entirely product revenue: engineered materials and components sold under specification-driven supply agreements, often qualified into a customer's tool or fiber-draw process for years. There is no meaningful subscription or software revenue. Licensing income is not publicly disclosed. A newer feature is the manufacturing partnership with Microsoft, in which Heraeus produces hollow core fiber using Microsoft's process intellectual property. That arrangement looks more like contract manufacturing and technology transfer than a catalogue-product sale.
Revenue model mix.
Product sales — semi-finished materials: Role in the business: Ingots, tubes, rods, plates, cylinders and preforms sold to quartz fabricators, optics makers and fiber drawers
Product sales — finished components: Role in the business: Machined and welded quartzware and optical components for semiconductor equipment and fabs
Contract / partnership manufacturing: Role in the business: Hollow core fiber production for Microsoft Azure at Heraeus sites in Europe and the USA (from 2025)
Services: Role in the business: Application engineering and material co-development; no separately reported service revenue
Licensing: Role in the business: Not publicly disclosed
Value-chain position. Covantics sits at the materials layer, upstream of semiconductor equipment OEMs (diffusion and LPCVD/ALD furnaces, etch chambers, lithography optics), fab maintenance and spares channels, optical-fiber preform and draw operations, and laser and optics system integrators. In synthetic fused silica for telecom fiber it supplies the cladding tubes and cylinders (RIC® cylinders and tubes) that preform makers overclad onto their core rods. It is therefore a critical but largely invisible supplier to the global fiber cable industry.
Customer types. Semiconductor equipment manufacturers and wafer fabs; quartzware fabricators; telecom optical-fiber producers; specialty fiber makers for industrial lasers, sensing and medical laser delivery; optics and laser OEMs; research institutions (nuclear fusion laser facilities, space missions such as ESA's LISA); and hyperscale cloud operators (Microsoft Azure).
End-markets served. Semiconductors (front-end process consumables and optics), telecommunications and datacom fiber (including AI data-center interconnect), specialty and medical fiber, lasers and photonics, astronomy and space, energy research (fusion laser optics), UV and specialty lighting, and passive telecom components.
Strategy
Stated strategic themes. On the merger, Covantics management said the aim was a "global powerhouse" that drives innovation, uses technological synergies across quartz, fused silica, ceramics and composites, and aligns combined capabilities more closely with market and customer needs. Its marketing line is "When performance matters, it has to be Heraeus". For semiconductors it uses "Where Vision meets Expertise — Redefining Tomorrow, Pioneering Materials for Future Technologies".
Strategic initiatives, last 24 months.
Merger of Conamic and Comvance into Covantics: Date: 1 Jan 2025; Description: Single operating company with a new management team; legal entities kept; Strategic intent: Scale, cross-portfolio synergies, one face to customers
Shenyang high-purity synthetic quartz plant: Date: Opened 25 Mar 2025; Description: Nearly RMB 600 million; green and smart design with wastewater recycling, 100% automated control and planned rooftop solar; Strategic intent: "In China, for China"; serve local semiconductor demand and reduce trade exposure
Hollow core fiber industrialisation with Microsoft: Date: Announced 23 Sep 2025; Description: Heraeus produces HCF at European and US sites using Microsoft process IP, with joint training, yield, metrology and reliability programmes; Strategic intent: Enter AI data-center interconnect; become a scale HCF manufacturer
Large-format Fluosil® preform: Date: Jun 2025; Description: Preform sized for whole fiber batches with uniform quality across the cross-section; Strategic intent: Lower fiber-maker cost; specialty-fiber share gain
Suprasil® SmartPlate 150-50: Date: Jun 2025; Description: Synthetic fused silica plates for high-performance near-infrared lasers; Strategic intent: Ultrafast-laser optics
Suprasil® ProPlate: Date: 2026; Description: Cost-efficient large-format plate; Strategic intent: Defend optics share on price
Multicore fiber preform development: Date: 2026; Description: Precision multicore preform design with partners; Strategic intent: Next-generation capacity per fiber
Fusion and space materials: Date: Ongoing; Description: Fused silica for fusion laser optics and the LISA mission; Strategic intent: High-value niche applications and reputation
Group carbon targets: Date: Since 2023; Description: All Heraeus operating companies committed to carbon targets aligned with 1.5 °C; Strategic intent: Decarbonise energy-intensive melting
Medium-term targets. Heraeus publishes no quantified medium-term financial targets for Heraeus Covantics. The Group outlook for 2026 is qualitative: it expects continued geopolitical tension, trade barriers and market uncertainty.
Products & Services
Semiconductor materials and components
| Product / brand | Description and capabilities | Target customer | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| HSQ® (incl. HSQ®-T, HSQ® 300/330 MF solids) | Natural quartz made by electric fusion; very high purity and clarity, very few inclusions and almost no bubbles, high thermal-shock resistance and optical transmission | Leading-edge semiconductor process tools and fabs | Heraeus's flagship material for high-end semiconductor processes (SEMICON Korea 2026) |
| Clear Fused Quartz (tubes, rods, plates) | Clear fused quartz with best-in-class low inclusion and bubble levels | Quartzware fabricators, OEMs for diffusion, LPCVD and ALD tubes, bells and boats | Promoted at SEMICON China 2025 and SEMICON Korea 2026 |
| Opaque Quartz OM® (incl. OM® 100) | Opaque quartz for thermal management (heat shielding and insulation inside process chambers) | Furnace and chamber component makers | Data sheets published 2026 |
| Black Quartz HBQ® | Black opaque quartz glass composite, a hybrid combining the purity of opaque and clear fused quartz with black-body thermal properties | Thermal-processing tool makers | Described as a "revolutionary hybrid material" |
| Low-bubble-content materials | Portfolio designed for uniform thin-film deposition | Deposition-tool OEMs and fabs | Highlighted on the Heraeus Group business page |
| Quartz glass plates (HOD® trademark) | Plates used as structural parts of wafer-production machinery | Equipment makers | HOD trademark filed in 2015 |
| Synthetic fused silica for lithography and optics | High-homogeneity synthetic silica for DUV optics (Suprasil® ArF/KrF grades, solarization resistant) | Lithography and inspection optics makers | Made at Hanau, Buford and Shenyang |
| High-purity synthetic quartz (Shenyang) | Locally made synthetic quartz for Chinese semiconductor customers | Chinese fabs and equipment makers | Plant opened March 2025 |
| Ceramics and composites | Engineered ceramic and composite parts | Semiconductor and industrial OEMs | Inherited from the Conamic and Comvance portfolios; details not publicly disclosed |
Telecom fiber materials
| Product / brand | Description | Target customer | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| RIC® cylinders | Large synthetic quartz cylinders for rod-in-cylinder preform assembly | Telecom optical-fiber producers | Core product of the former Heraeus Comvance |
| Synthetic quartz tubes and hollow cylinders | Cladding tubes for preform overcladding | Fiber and preform makers | Made at Bitterfeld since 1991 and at Buford |
| Preform cladding blanks / ultra-pure synthetic tubes | High-purity tubes and blanks | Preform manufacturers | Hanau fused silica plant |
| Passive-component materials | Quartz and fused silica for passive telecom components | Optical component makers | Named on the Heraeus Group business page |
Specialty and next-generation fiber
| Product / brand | Description | Target customer | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fluosil® preforms (incl. large-format Fluosil® preform) | Fluorine-doped synthetic fused silica preforms. The large format lets a whole fiber batch be drawn from one preform, with uniform quality across the full cross-section | Specialty-fiber and laser-fiber manufacturers | Large-format version launched June 2025 |
| F300® tubing | High-purity synthetic tubing used, for example, by Fiberware GmbH for hollow glass waveguides that deliver mid-infrared laser light in medicine | Medical and industrial fiber makers | Featured at Photonics West 2026 |
| Hollow Core Fiber (HCF) | Air-core antiresonant fiber (Microsoft's double nested antiresonant nodeless fiber, DNANF, design). Microsoft cites up to 47% faster transmission and about 33% lower latency than single-mode fiber | Microsoft Azure; data-center interconnect | Industrial scale-up announced 23 September 2025 |
| Multicore fiber (in development) | Several independent light-guiding cores in one fiber strand, needing precise preform design and process control | Telecom and datacom operators and cable makers | Development stage (Heraeus, 2026) |
Photonics, optics, energy and space
| Product / brand | Description | Target customer | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Suprasil® (family) | Synthetic fused silica for UV-to-visible optics, mirror substrates, prisms and windows | Optics and laser OEMs, aerospace | Since the 1950s |
| Suprasil® SmartPlate 150-50 | New generation of synthetic fused silica plates for high-performance near-infrared lasers, supporting ultrafast laser technology | Ultrafast and high-power laser makers | 2,025 |
| Suprasil® ProPlate | Large-format fused silica plate made by a new production approach for an attractive price point; for laser systems, imaging optics and large mirrors | Optics makers | 2,026 |
| Suprasil® Standard Commercial Grade | Lower-cost synthetic quartz for standard UV optics | Volume optics makers | 2,012 |
| Infrasil® | Optical quartz with good infrared transmission | IR optics makers | Long-established brand |
| Heralux® | Photonics-grade quartz brand | Optics and lighting | Long-established brand |
| Fused silica for fusion laser optics | Fused silica supplied to nuclear-fusion research facilities worldwide for laser optics | Fusion research laboratories | Ongoing |
| Fused silica for the LISA space mission | Fused silica solutions for the highly stable optical systems of ESA's gravitational-wave observatory | Space agencies and primes | Highlighted in October 2026 |
Pricing model. Prices are set by contract and specification; list prices are not publicly disclosed. Suprasil® ProPlate and Suprasil® Standard CG are explicitly positioned on cost, which shows a tiered price strategy within optical-grade silica.
Financial Narrative
Heraeus Covantics does not publish standalone financial statements. The tables below show the consolidated figures of its parent, Heraeus Holding GmbH (IFRS, EUR million, Heraeus Financial Reports 2021–2025), which set the financial capacity and capital-allocation context for Covantics. Heraeus treats revenue excluding precious metals as its main revenue measure, because total revenue is swollen by the pass-through value of precious-metal trading.
Income statement
In 2021 total revenue was €29.5 billion, revenue excluding precious metals was €2.3 billion (+10.7%) and profit after tax was €369.3 million (Heraeus Financial Report 2021). Revenue excluding precious metals then rose 27.6% in 2022. Gross profit, EPS and dividends per share are not publicly disclosed; the company is privately held and has no per-share reporting.
Margins (Heraeus Group, % of revenue excl. precious metals)
From 2022 to 2025, revenue excluding precious metals shrank at a compound annual rate of about 0.8%. Margins fell sharply in 2024 and partly recovered in 2025. The 2025 recovery was flattered by non-recurring items. Management states that profit would have fallen without released provisions, because of weaker operations, impairments and higher precious-metal lease rates. Profit after tax beat the forecast in 2025 but missed it once one-off effects are stripped out.
Balance sheet
Liquidity reserves (cash, cash equivalents and term deposits) were €1,199.8 million at year-end 2025, down €62.9 million in the year. Total debt split by maturity, net debt, goodwill and intangibles, and working capital are not publicly disclosed in summary form.
Cash flow
The 2022 capex figure in the key-indicator table (€288 million) differs from the cash-flow statement's €305.5 million of payments for non-current assets. Dividends paid to the family shareholders and share buybacks are not publicly disclosed.
Ratios (Heraeus Group)
ROIC, current ratio, debt/equity, net debt/EBITDA, interest coverage and the cash conversion cycle are not publicly disclosed at Group level and cannot be derived from the published summary.
Commentary on trends and drivers
Revenue. Group revenue excluding precious metals peaked at €2.90 billion in 2022, when a strong semiconductor and electronics cycle followed post-pandemic recovery. It then fell for two years: by 1.3% in 2023 and by a further 5.3% in 2024. The 2023 report blames the downturn in quartz glass demand on inventory built up along the semiconductor value chain. Semiconductor & Electronics shrank 5.1% to €740.6 million in 2023 and then recovered to €792.1 million in 2024 and €793.6 million in 2025. Within the area, Covantics' quartz products depend on wafer-fab utilisation and equipment shipments, while telecom fiber materials depend on fiber-to-the-home and data-center cable build-outs.
Profitability. EBIT fell by more than half between 2022 and 2024, from €695 million to €320 million. The causes were weaker volumes, cost inflation, impairments and charges linked to precious-metal recycling problems in another business area. The 2025 rebound in EBIT to €446 million owed much to the release of €157.8 million of provisions set up for the precious-metals recycling matter, so underlying profit was weaker than reported.
Cash and investment. Operating cash flow fell 54% in 2025 to €257 million. Capex was cut to €228 million after an investment peak in 2023–2024 that included the Shenyang quartz plant (nearly RMB 600 million) and the Kleinostheim expansion. Operating cash flow less capex fell to €29 million, the weakest in the period. That limits the Group's room for further large organic projects unless operating cash flow recovers.
Balance sheet. The equity ratio of 56.7% is still conservative. Liquidity reserves of about €1.2 billion and the family-owned structure give Covantics a patient capital base, which suits long-cycle materials investments such as hollow core fiber scale-up.
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View Subscription PlansFinancial Detail
Business Lines
| Business line | Contents | Products |
|---|---|---|
Semiconductor | Natural and synthetic quartz materials and components for wafer processing | HSQ® electrically fused quartz, clear fused quartz tubes, rods and plates, OM® opaque quartz, HBQ® black quartz, low-bubble materials for thin-film deposition, synthetic fused silica |
Fiber Optics — Telecom Fiber | Synthetic fused silica for telecom fiber preforms | RIC® cylinders, tubes, preform cladding blanks |
Fiber Optics — Specialty Fiber | Preforms and tubing for specialty, laser and medical fibers | Fluosil® fluorine-doped preforms, F300® tubing, specialty preforms |
Hollow Core and Multicore Fiber | Next-generation datacom fiber | Hollow core fiber (DNANF design under the Microsoft partnership), multicore fiber development |
Photonics and Optics | Optical-grade fused silica for lasers, imaging and space | Suprasil® family (SmartPlate, ProPlate, ArF/KrF grades), Infrasil®, Heralux® |
Accessories / Passive Components | Components for telecom passive devices and other uses | Quartz and fused silica parts for passive telecom components |
Ceramics and Composites | Materials from the former Comvance and Conamic portfolios | Ceramic and composite components |
Revenue by Segment and Segment Margins & Growth (%)
| Metric | FY2022 | FY2023 | FY2024 | FY2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Semiconductor & Electronics revenue (EUR Mn) | 780.1 | 740.6 | 792.1 | 793.6 |
YoY growth (%) | 0 | -5.1 | 7.0 | 0.2 |
Share of Group revenue ex precious metals (%) | 26.9 | 25.9 | 29.2 | 28.0 |
Segment Revenue
| Business area | FY2024 | FY2025 |
|---|---|---|
Precious Metals | 417.2 | 575.6 |
Healthcare | 901.2 | 899.9 |
Semiconductor & Electronics | 792.1 | 793.6 |
Industrials | 591.7 | 550.1 |
Income Statement
| Metric | FY2022 | FY2023 | FY2024 | FY2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Total revenue (EUR Mn) | 29,082 | 25,649 | 29,397 | 43,194 |
Revenue excl. precious metals (EUR Mn) | 2,900 | 2,862 | 2,711 | 2,830 |
EBITDA (EUR Mn) | 956 | 846 | 600 | 760 |
EBIT (EUR Mn) | 695 | 620 | 320 | 446 |
Pre-tax income EBT (EUR Mn) | 684 | 595 | 314 | 385 |
Profit after tax (EUR Mn) | 505 | 444 | 237 | 259 |
Margin Analysis (%)
| Metric | FY2022 | FY2023 | FY2024 | FY2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
EBITDA margin (%) | 33.0 | 29.6 | 22.1 | 26.9 |
EBIT margin (%) | 24.0 | 21.7 | 11.8 | 15.8 |
Net margin (%) | 17.4 | 15.5 | 8.7 | 9.2 |
Balance Sheet and Margin Analysis (%)
| Metric | FY2022 | FY2023 | FY2024 | FY2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Total assets (EUR Mn) | 7,152 | 7,318 | 7,906 | 8,157 |
Shareholders' equity (EUR Mn) | 4,541 | 4,681 | 4,703 | 4,621 |
Equity ratio (%) | 63.5 | 64.0 | 59.5 | 56.7 |
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View Subscription PlansCash Flow
| Metric | FY2022 | FY2023 | FY2024 | FY2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Operating cash flow (EUR Mn) | 692 | 634 | 563 | 257 |
Capital expenditure (EUR Mn) | 288 | 360 | 335 | 228 |
Operating cash flow less capex (EUR Mn) | 404 | 274 | 228 | 29 |
Capex as % of revenue excl. precious metals | 9.9 | 12.6 | 12.4 | 8.1 |
Returns & Leverage Ratios (%) and Financial Ratios (x)
| Metric | FY2022 | FY2023 | FY2024 | FY2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
ROE on year-end equity (%) | 11.1 | 9.5 | 5.0 | 5.6 |
ROA on year-end assets (%) | 7.1 | 6.1 | 3.0 | 3.2 |
Asset turnover on revenue excl. precious metals (x) | 0.41 | 0.39 | 0.34 | 0.35 |
Region Overview
| Region | FY2023 |
|---|---|
Americas | 34 |
Asia | 32 |
Europe excl. Germany | 21 |
Germany | 11 |
Africa / Australia | 2 |
Revenue by Region (%)
| Metric | FY2023 | FY2025 |
|---|---|---|
Europe incl. Germany, share of revenue excl. precious metals (%) | 32.0 | 33.4 |
Income Statement (FY2021–FY2025)
| Metric | FY2021 | FY2022 | FY2023 | FY2024 | FY2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Wonik QnC revenue (KRW Bn) | 624.1 | 783.2 | 805.9 | 891.5 | 943.6 |
Analyst Conclusions
Management guidance. Heraeus gives no quantified guidance for Covantics. For 2026 the Group expects continued geopolitical tension, trade barriers and market uncertainty. Peer Wonik QnC expects further revenue growth in 2026 from AI-related investment and process transitions at major customers, which points to a supportive semiconductor quartz market.
Bull case.
-
Hollow core fiber becomes a second growth engine. Microsoft's plan to add 15,000 km of HCF over 24 months, with Covantics as one of two named manufacturing partners, could create a high-value, technology-protected revenue stream that cable-grade fiber materials lack.
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The AI-driven semiconductor upcycle lifts high-purity quartz. Leading-edge processes need the very low inclusion and bubble levels of HSQ® and synthetic silica, while peers report growth driven by global quartz demand.
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Localised China capacity protects share. The Shenyang plant, with Heraeus's largest semiconductor investment in China, lets Covantics serve Chinese fabs from inside the market despite trade barriers.
Bear case.
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Semiconductor & Electronics revenue barely grew from 2022 to 2025 (€780.1 million to €793.6 million), while Asian fabricators such as Wonik QnC grew about 20% over the same years.
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Group cash generation is weak (operating cash flow less capex of €29 million in 2025), and the precious-metals legal provisions (€300 million plus €170 million) compete with Covantics for investment capital.
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HCF is still early-stage and depends on one customer, with Corning and Chinese players (YOFC) building parallel capacity; yield and reliability setbacks could delay returns.
Key catalysts and monitorables (next 12 months):
Heraeus Financial Report 2026: What to watch: Semiconductor & Electronics revenue trend; mention of HCF volumes
HCF deployment milestones: What to watch: Microsoft Azure HCF kilometres deployed; any second hyperscaler customer
Shenyang ramp: What to watch: Capacity utilisation and qualification at Chinese fabs
Precious-metals investigations: What to watch: Size of further provisions, prosecutorial outcomes, Group reputation
Semiconductor cycle: What to watch: Fab utilisation and quartz spare-part demand in Korea, Taiwan and China
Product launches: What to watch: Uptake of Suprasil® ProPlate and multicore preforms; Photonics West and OFC 2027 announcements
Portfolio moves: What to watch: Further Heraeus reshaping inside Semiconductor & Electronics after the Epurio chemicals sale
Analyst verdict. Heraeus Covantics is a strategically important but financially opaque asset inside a family conglomerate going through a difficult phase. Its materials franchise is real and long-lived. Few companies can match its range of silica processes and brands built over more than a century, and its leading-edge semiconductor grades, telecom cladding cylinders and laser-optics plates are qualified across the world's fabs, fiber plants and laser factories. That makes it a durable supplier in markets with high switching costs. Merging Conamic and Comvance in 2025 was a sensible simplification: it put the semiconductor-quartz and fiber-materials know-how, which share the same chemistry, under one management team just as data-center connectivity and semiconductor purity requirements are converging on the same material.
The most important development is the Microsoft hollow core fiber partnership. If HCF follows Microsoft's deployment plan, Covantics moves from selling commodity-exposed cladding glass to producing a differentiated, latency-critical product for AI infrastructure. In effect, it would become a contract manufacturer for one of the world's largest cloud networks. The Shenyang plant complements this by securing a position in China's semiconductor build-out.
The constraints are mostly outside Covantics. Its business area grew little between 2022 and 2025, Group margins and cash flow have weakened, and the precious-metals scandals absorb management attention and capital. Investors and counterparties cannot assess Covantics' own profitability because none is disclosed. On balance, Covantics should be viewed as a technically advantaged, strategically repositioning materials leader whose upside depends on HCF execution and on the Group's ability to keep investing through its legal problems. For supply-chain partners, it remains a low-risk, high-quality source of high-purity quartz components. For competitors, its HCF capability is the development most likely to change its standing over the next three to five years.
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View Subscription PlansExecutive Leadership
Executive Leadership Team
| Name | Title | Tenure / context | Prior roles |
|---|---|---|---|
Dr. Nikolas Pojezny | CEO / President, Heraeus Covantics; Member of the Heraeus Group Management Committee | Managing Director since formation on 1 January 2025 | Senior leadership in the Heraeus quartz businesses before the merger |
Christoph Fark | President, Heraeus Covantics | Managing Director since 1 January 2025 | Senior leadership in the predecessor businesses |
Michael Werth | Managing Director at formation (January 2025) | One of three founding managing directors; the current heraeus.com management page lists Fark and Pojezny | Senior leadership in the predecessor businesses |
Jan Vydra | Executive Vice President Fiber Optics | Leads the fiber business, including the Microsoft hollow core fiber partnership (2025) | — |
Xiaodong Cai | General Manager, Heraeus Covantics China | Led the Shenyang plant opening (March 2025) | — |
Dr. Andreas Langner | Scientific Director Specialty Fiber | Technical lead for specialty fiber | Long-standing Heraeus fiber scientist |
Dr. Ansgar Meissner | Product Manager Hollow Core Fiber | Hollow core fiber commercialisation | — |
“—” = not publicly disclosed.
Executive Leadership Team — Dr. Frank Stietz
| Name | Role | Since / change |
|---|---|---|
Dr. Frank Stietz | Chief Executive Officer | CEO since 23 May 2025; previously Board member and COO (opened the Shenyang plant as COO, March 2025) |
Barbara Gregor | Chief Financial Officer | From 1 January 2026 |
Dr. Klemens Brunner | Member of the Board | Business-area responsibility |
Dr. Steffen Metzger | Member of the Board | Also interim CEO of the Heraeus Precious Metals operating company |
Heiko Specht | Member of the Board | Since 15 August 2025 |
Jan Rinnert | Former CEO | Left 22 May 2025 |
Rolf Wetzel | Former CFO | Left 30 September 2025 |
Competitive Landscape
Key Competitors
| Competitor | Country / listing | Segment overlap | Relative positioning |
|---|---|---|---|
Shin-Etsu Chemical / Shin-Etsu Quartz Products | Japan (TSE: 4063) | Semiconductor quartz, synthetic silica, fiber preforms | Partner through the quartz joint venture and competitor in synthetic silica and preforms |
Tosoh Quartz (Tosoh Corporation) | Japan (TSE: 4042) | Semiconductor quartz glass and quartzware | Strong in Japanese and Asian fab supply |
Momentive Technologies | USA (private) | Fused quartz tubing, rods and semiconductor quartz | Large US electrically fused quartz producer |
QSIL | Germany (private) | Fused quartz tubes, rods and semiconductor quartzware | European mid-size competitor |
Wonik QnC | Korea (KOSDAQ: 074600) | Semiconductor quartzware, ceramics, cleaning and coating | Leading Korean quartzware fabricator; customer and competitor |
Ferrotec Corporation | Japan (TSE: 6890) | Quartz products, quartz crucibles, ceramics, CVD-SiC and silicon parts | Large, diversified semiconductor-parts competitor with a Chinese manufacturing base |
Corning | USA (NYSE: GLW) | High-purity fused silica (HPFS), optical fiber, hollow core fiber | Parallel Microsoft HCF supplier; fiber market leader |
AGC | Japan (TSE: 5201) | Synthetic fused silica for optics and lithography | Competitor in optical silica |
Hubei Feilihua Quartz Glass | China (SZSE) | Quartz glass materials and products for semiconductors and optical fiber | Growing Chinese domestic competitor |
YOFC | China (HKEX / SSE) | Preforms, fiber, hollow core fiber | Integrated Chinese fiber maker; launched an 800G hollow core fiber network with China Mobile |
Peer Comparison FY2025
| Metric | FY2021 | FY2022 | FY2023 | FY2024 | FY2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Wonik QnC revenue (KRW Bn) | 624.1 | 783.2 | 805.9 | 891.5 | 943.6 |
Heraeus Group Semiconductor & Electronics revenue (EUR Mn) | 0 | 780.1 | 740.6 | 792.1 | 793.6 |
