The BASF boss used the general meeting of the Dax group on Friday to outline the unprecedented dangers for his industry and his company.

In extreme cases, said Martin Brudermüller at the virtual event, there is a risk of “irreversible damage” to the economy – and even worse to the headquarters of his company: the huge chemical plant in Ludwigshafen would basically have to close if gas supplies from Russia stopped overnight.

They are irreplaceable.

Uwe Marx

Editor in Business.

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As bitter as it is: "Russian gas supplies form the basis for the competitiveness of our industry." There is no short-term solution to replace them.

Dependence on Russian gas must be reduced, but that doesn't happen "at the push of a button".

Intervention by Brussels

The situation is already difficult enough without the threat of a gas embargo, from whichever side.

The enormously high energy prices are affecting the energy-intensive chemical industry to such an extent that Brudermüller resorted to historical classification.

Implementing the EU Commission's Green Deal under such adverse circumstances, which he also undisputed, is unprecedented: "It will put our industrial competitiveness to the toughest test in its history."

The trick is in the details: The new chemicals law from Brussels, for example, will probably affect 12,000 chemical products, which is 45 percent of all substances.

Many of these would fall under a ban.

Nor did the warnings get any quieter because BASF is very stable.

The group has already had a very good year in 2021 and has also done well in the first few months of 2022.

Last year, sales of EUR 78.6 billion were an impressive 33 percent higher than in 2020, EBIT before special items was exceeded by 118 percent and amounted to EUR 7.8 billion.

Regarding volume growth of 10.6 percent - 4.5 percentage points more than global chemical production - it was said that BASF had grown more strongly than it had in a long time.

Now there should be a dividend of 3.40 euros per share, an increase of 10 cents compared to the previous year.

This corresponds to a distribution of 3.1 billion euros.

In the first quarter of 2022, it did not look as if the trend would end, as sales rose by 19 percent to EUR 23.1 billion and EBIT before special items by 21 percent to EUR 3.8 billion.

The company confirmed its goals for the year as a whole: It expects slightly reduced sales of 74 to 77 billion euros and an operating result of 6.6 to 7.2 billion euros.

War affects business

Either way, the war in Ukraine is also keeping BASF in suspense.

The company has not been doing any new business in Russia and Belarus since the beginning of March and decided this week to also discontinue existing business activities in both countries by the beginning of July.

All in all, it's about one percent of group sales, so it's bearable.

Only the production of food remains untouched to counteract the threat of famine caused by the lack of grain exports from Ukraine and Russia.

That leaves the BASF construction site Wintershall Dea.

Brudermüller confirmed that he wanted to take the company public without any changes.

Although the company is not affected by sanctions, it has interests in Russian production facilities.

That makes an IPO “currently difficult”.

BASF holds almost 70 percent of Wintershall Dea, the rest is in the hands of the former Dea owner Letter One.