“To become the premier chemical company.” This simple phrase summarizes the vision shared by Celanese employees across the globe. To us, being the premier chemical company means best-in-class safety performance, sustainable earnings growth, satisfied customers benefiting from our innovative, value-added products, and motivated employees delivering exceptional performance. In 2000, we began our journey to transform Celanese into a focused portfolio of businesses that embodies a culture of operational excellence and increased value for our shareholders. We challenged Celanese employees to help us execute our strategy, and I am pleased to report that they have delivered. Our success over the past several years is a tribute to their hard work and drive for excellence.

The past six years of execution culminates the first phase of our successful transformation strategy. We have positioned Celanese as a leading global chemical company with top-performing franchises, an attractive hybrid business model and incredibly strong global positions. While we are proud of our accomplishments, we are not satisfied. We now will embark on the second phase of our long-term strategy to expand our earnings power over the next three years. This comprehensive six-point strategy focuses on the following areas:

• Expansion in Asia – In Asia, our profitability and earnings growth are strong with approximately 30% of our earnings currently generated in this region. In order to support our customers in Asia, plans are underway to expand our sales, marketing, manufacturing and research capabilities. We are accelerating our growth and enhancing our already substantial position in Asia with the development of our fully integrated manufacturing complex in Nanjing, China which will support new facilities in each of our business groups. We will also continue to expand capacity at our strategic Asian affiliates, and by 2010, we expect to generate approximately 45% to 55% of our total earnings in this high-growth region.
• Revitalization – Our Acetate Products business is successfully executing a revitalization strategy to increase efficiency, grow globally and focus on core products. It has made significant progress which will continue with the integration of APL. By building on our successful revitalization efforts in our Acetate Products business, we will pursue additional revitalization opportunities in other specialty areas, specifically in our Emulsions/PVOH business.
• Innovation – We are continually developing new products and technologies that deliver value-added solutions to our customers. In our Emulsions/PVOH business, we see great growth potential as we collaborate with our global customers on new products and developments. Through application and customer innovation, we also plan to drive growth more than two times global gross domestic product in our Ticona Technical Polymers business through 2010.
• Organic Growth – We have leading positions in businesses that have growth in excess of the global gross domestic product rate. In our current portfolio, approximately 95% of our products hold number one or number two producer positions. We will continue to capture organic growth with our leading technology, superior cost positions and strong global presence.
• Balance Sheet – We will continue to generate a strong cash flow and pursue earnings growth opportunities in our current capital structure to increase value for shareholders.
• Operational Excellence – We have created an operational excellence culture to maintain our cost advantage and increase productivity in order to more than offset inflation and allow earnings to flow to the bottom line. We are striving to achieve business process excellence beyond manufacturing productivity.

Celanese is becoming the premier global chemical company. With an integrated, hybrid business portfolio, superior performance and significant growth potential, we are well-positioned for continued success in years to come. We invite you to learn more about our track record of execution and our exciting plans for growth as we continue to increase the value of Celanese for all stakeholders, including our customers, shareholders and employees.

David N. Weidman
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer