Over halfway to the Dutch border with Germany lay Deventer, a small city situated on the banks of the IJssel river and home to the multinational specialty chemical manufacturer, Nouryon. After the one and a half hour drive east from our home-away-from-home here in Amsterdam, we met with Christina Pampena, a Pitt alum and Vice President of the natural resources wing of the company. After a brief presentation we broke for lunch, later assembling into groups of eight as we toured various departments across the property. Afterward we returned to Amsterdam with Christina and convened with a handful of other Pitt alumni all working here in the Netherlands. Throughout the course of the event we got the opportunity to chat on topics ranging from company specifics to the particulars about living and working abroad, granting us set of valuable new perspectives as we consider the very same as we plan our own futures.

Receiving visitors’ passes at the front gate we entered Nouryon’s campus to a quick introduction of the extent of their products, role in the supply chain, and approach to sustainability. Responsible for component chemicals in detergents and soaps to industrial coatings and other synthetic compounds, Nouryon was founded upon the use and manufacture of organic peroxides. Originally in the milling trade Nouryon’s founders and namesakes Jan Nourij and Gerrit van der Lande produced primarily oil and flour for local sale. Early on the millers faced stark competition from imported American flour which lent derivative breads to take on a white, chic appearance. After investigating the cause of this property at the local laboratory, van der Lande and Nourij discovered the grain’s peculiarity was due to a process of oxidization that took place over the six to eight weeks of time in transit across the Atlantic. From there the pair were able to synthesize an organic peroxide to oxidize their home-milled grain to mimic the American fare much faster and at a lower price, circumventing their competitor’s sole market edge.

Ironically enough, the modern day United States is one of the few countries in the world that continues to treat domestic grain with peroxide and other bleaching agents, with the Netherlands and other European Union countries citing the compounds’ risk as a carcinogen. Today Nouryon’s organic peroxide production continues with Trigonox B, a proprietary peroxide compound often used in the production of PVC, LDPE, polystyrene, and other common polymers and composites. In a live demonstration chemists from Nouryon’s safety labs illustrated the volatility of the compound by lighting it aflame alongside acetone, a rather ubiquitous chemical used in paint removal. While the acetone burned steadily throughout the experiment the Trigonox, while difficult to light, began to burn rapidly in a large pillar of fire, at one point even expelling large embers into the test chamber. Vulnerable to chain reactions, Trigonox’s eruptive nature begets a safety and logistics challenge in the context of shipping, which Nouryon conducts on a global scale. The product must be kept at low temperatures in pressurized environments to avoid accidental ignition, thereby requiring many tests and evaluations on behalf of the manufacturer to determine the maximum amount of substance that can be safely stored in a containment vessel. With 17 awards relating to workplace safety and proper procedure, Nouryon prides itself on the lengths it goes to maintain an efficient operating capacity, reducing time and capital loss incurred by incidents.

Besides supplying resources for industrial applications, Nouryon also capitalizes on the production of surfactants for use in cleaning products and similar home supplies. Surfactants make up an essential part of detergents and soaps, responsible for the reduction of liquids’ surface tension, thereby loosening and smoothing wash cycles while diluting heavy soiling and other contaminants in the process. Within the facility an entire room is dedicated to the study of Nouryon’s surfactant products, allowing customers to send in their soaps without their typical surfactant to see how the chemical manufacturer’s product would interact with their own mix of ingredients. This provides not only an accurate evaluation of the product’s efficiency, but also promotes a more intimate relationship between Nouryon and its customers, leading to greater trust between partners and a personal assurance of quality when choosing to work with them as the producer.

We returned to Amsterdam by bus, catching local transportation Westerpark region of the city for a meetup with Pitt alumni from all around the Netherlands. In the latter half of the event I spent some time chatting with an alum who worked for ASML, the designer and manufacturer of laser engraving machines and other tools necessary to construct microchips, processors, and other semiconductor components.

With Moore’s law in full swing and the complexity of contemporary electronics compounding year-over-year, ASML has been flush with orders for its machinery in a queue over 20 years long, despite only seven semiconductor companies owning enough capital to purchase one of their machines brand new. Corporations begun to finance ASML’s products at the moment of inception, outlining various abilities they wish to utilize in the final product. After a period of back and forth the final outline is complete and sent to the R&D team for initial development. Then comes the decade’s long process of prototyping, manufacture, shipping, installment, and servicing, each step contributing to the revenue of the company. Surprisingly, even though it takes years to develop and manufacture new machines, some 80% of the company’s revenue comes from sales alone with the rest including, servicing, maintenance, and other smaller portions of its income stream. The size of small buildings, many of ASML’s products find their way to TSMC, the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, which is singularly responsible for a majority of the globe’s semiconductor production and industry.

With the legacy of tension between Taiwan and is neighbor China, combined with sanctions and diplomatic leverage from the U.S., ASML has been in a more complicated spot than ever regarding its various partners and clients who rely on the company to maintain their multi-million Euro equipment. Facing similar pressure from sanctions in Russia, Nouryon was forced to abandon many of its clients and even employees within the country, all of this amid rising production costs due to the recent lack of natural gas exports from the very same. It is often easy to overlook the effect international politics has on global business as both are often considered separate affairs, but it is important to recognize that, like people, businesses are very much at the whim of their government’s prerogative. This case goes doubly abroad as many countries, especially within western Europe, look to the United States as a foreign policy leader and vital economic partner, resulting in domestic decisions that reflect U.S. interests. The global community is driven by interaction on all levels, political and commercial, and, as each step of the supply chain experiences changes in the other, each player within the worldwide stage of human cooperation has a hand in the tomorrow we build today.

Speaking of, tomorrow, May 9th, marks the Ascension of Christ, one of many public holidays here in the Netherlands. As such many businesses will be closed throughout the day, freeing up some time for cultural visits as our time in Amsterdam comes to a close. Come Friday night we will be off to Rotterdam for the second half of our trip where we will get to see a whole new side of the Netherlands through the working port and various businesses unique to the Rotterdam area, such as the Floating Farm.

– Duncan Dockstader