DSM (in full Koninklijke DSM N.V., or Royal DSM N.V.) is a multinational chemicals company. Its headquarters are in Heerlen, the Netherlands. Originally a state-owned coal mining company (Dutch State Mines/De Staats Mijnen), it is now a producer of:

• Industrial chemicals (e.g. feedstocks for plastics producers)
• Performance materials (e.g. automotive plastics, resins, elastomers)
• Life science products (e.g. antibiotics, food specialties)
• Nutritional products (e.g. vitamins)

Name

The name DSM is actually derived from the English language, it is the acronym of the translation of the Dutch name; De Nederlandse Staatmijnen translated into Dutch State Mines (DSM). This company was regularly in the news in the late 1960's, because of the Dutch government's decision to close all the (state)mines. In 1973, after the last mine was closed, the company decided to carry the acronym as its name.

Data

DSM has about 24 thousand employees, in a.o. the Netherlands, Sweden, the United States, Switzerland, Austria, Belgium, the United Kingdom, Canada, Brazil, Germany, Italy, Spain and Australia. DSM has a total of 270 production locations and offices worldwide and achieved a turnover of 8.2 billion Euros in 2005 (7.7 billion Euros in 2004), with a net profit of 527 million Euros (262 million Euros in 2004).

History

DSM was established in 1902 as a coal mining company. Through the years the company focussed not only on mining, but also on the chemical sector. Due to the closure of all the mines and the unemployment that followed, the Dutch government stimulated the chemical plants, to provide jobs for the miners.

In 1989 DSM was privatized, and started its first sale of the company's common shares to public investors. In 2002 the company sold their petrochemical division (the naphtha crackers) to SABIC of Saudi Arabia. Also in 2002, DSM acquired the nutritional products (a.o. vitamins) division of Roche.

Companies listed on the Euronext exchanges | Companies of the Netherlands | Multinational companies headquartered in the Netherlands | Multinational companies | Heerlen

Koninklijke DSM NV