In its annual results presentation, BASF announced plans to reduce costs at its main verbund site in Ludwigshafen by a further €1 billion/year by the end of 2026. This comes on top of a similar scale of cuts initiated in late 2022.

Last year, results in Germany suffered due to substantially negative earnings at Ludwigshafen, the company said. This was attributed to two main causes: the temporary low-demand environment is affecting volume development both upstream and downstream, while structurally high energy prices are raising production costs upstream.

BASF has started production in its €25 million excellence centre for superabsorbent polymers (SAPs) at its verbund site in Antwerp, Belgium, with €1.4 million in support from the Government of Flanders. This features a pilot plant equipped with advanced data collection and sensor technology to increase innovation capabilities in SAPs and accelerate scale-up from product development to production scale at the nearby commercial plant.

BASF has expanded capacity for ethylene oxide (EO) and derivatives at its verbund site in Antwerp, adding 400,000 tonnes/year in total. The €500 million+ investment comprises a second world-scale EO plant, including capacity for purified EO and alkoxylates. About 100 new jobs have been created.

BASF management and representatives of the 34,000 employees at the Ludwigshafen verbund site in Germany have signed a new site agreement. This will run from 1 June to the end of 2025, replacing one that was due to expire at the end of 2020.