BASF has announced that it is currently assessing which of its production plants will need to implement short-time working from June. A decision will be made in mid-May on a unit-by-unit basis, working with employee representatives. The company described the move as “a result of the continuing weak economic situation”.

Short-time working is an instrument via which German firms can cut working hours for up to 18 months and claim part of the cost back from the federal government, thus avoiding redundancies. It has already been implemented for nearly 1,700 employees at two BASF Coatings sites at Münster and Schwarzheide since February, following a provisional agreement reached with employee representatives in January.

Hitherto, BASF has avoided using short-time working at its main verbund site in Ludwigshafen. Instead, it has reduced production rates, taken advantage of the flexibility of the site and shifted about 600 workers temporarily to other plants. However, said site director Dr Harald Schwager, “we are now reaching the limits of what is possible”.
The projected measures are expected to affect 2,000-3,000 of the 32,800 employees at Ludwigshafen. They will receive about 90% of their net wages. Normal working hours can be re-implemented at any time, if demand recovers.

If it does not, however, the company may also, among other things, extend short-time working beyond production units. “Capacity utilisation rates at many plants have remained very low since the beginning of the year, and there are no signs of a sustained improvement in orders from key customer industries in the foreseeable future,” Schwager said.

Following the completion of the acquisition of Ciba Specialty Chemicals, BASF has also announced that Michael Heinz will take over as CEO at Ciba and Hans-Jürgen Seeger, currently managing director of BASF Services Europe, will be its new CFO. Current Ciba CEO Brendan Cummins will leave after a few months in advisory role.

BASF’s Dr Hans-Ulrich Engel has become chairman of Ciba’s board of directors, the company’s senior supervisory body. Hans-Walther Reiners and Dr Jörg Buchmüller are also on the board, having been elected in December 2008. All of the previous Ciba directors have now resigned.

The acquisition closed on 9 April with the payment of the offer price to Ciba shareholders and the transfer of tendered shares to BASF, which now holds 95.8% of the stock. All Ciba shares that were not tendered as part of the public offer can be traded on the SIX Swiss Exchange until further notice.

The integration of Ciba into is starting with a ‘discovery phase’, during which joint teams will analyse the Ciba businesses in order to “define a market-oriented positioning for the combined businesses as well as the optimal organisational structure”. Based on this, the process should begin in July.

The last obstacles to the acquisition were cleared in early April, with approval from the EC, the US Federal Trade Commission and the Chinese regulatory authorities. Some competition concerns arose in Europe, but have been addressed. The total value of products affected is said to be well under €100 million.

As a result, BASF has already sold the Chimassorb 119 FL hindered amine light stabilisers businesses to Italy’s Sabo and will conclude a licence agreement, giving third party access to the technology behind Tinosorb S, Ciba’s patented UV filter. It will also sell its own production assets for the chemical intermediate DMA3 in Ludwigshafen, plus Ciba’s EEA synthetic dry strength agents and acrylates businesses in Finland and bismuth vanadate pigment capacity.