Since the energy crisis following the war in Ukraine, the chemical company BASF has been in difficult waters. The company is changing course. Recently, a new problem has arisen.
The world’s largest chemical company, BASF, once again felt the impact of lower sales prices in the second quarter. Negative currency effects also continued to weigh on the company. This could not compensate for higher sales volumes. Sales shrank by 6.9 percent year-on-year to 16.1 billion euros in the three months to the end of June, the DAX-listed company announced in Ludwigshafen on Friday.
Adjusted for special items, operating earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (adjusted EBITDA) rose slightly by 0.6 percent to just under two billion euros. The group benefited from its austerity measures here. The bottom line was that shareholders received a profit of 430 million euros – compared to 499 million euros a year earlier.
The chemical company confirmed its targets for 2024. Since the end of April, BASF has had a new CEO – Markus Kamieth. The long-standing CEO Martin Brudermüller left his successor a difficult legacy. In February, when presenting annual figures, Brudermüller announced another billion-dollar savings program and further job cuts at the main plant in Ludwigshafen. BASF has been making a loss in Germany for two years. The largest production site is to be reorganized.
Specifically, the DAX company’s headquarters are to save an additional one billion euros in costs annually by the end of 2026. It is unclear how many jobs will be lost in Ludwigshafen. The closure of further plants has not been ruled out either.
Source: Stern
