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High-voltage pylon in Hamburg: A lot of things are “sliding”

Photo: Christian Ohde / IMAGO

BASF boss Martin Brudermüller has spoken out in favor of nationalizing the electricity grid. “We have to make the networks available to everyone free of charge,” he tells the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung”.

Networks are like roads; they are part of a successful economy. The state could share the investments as part of a public-private partnership. "Yes, that would be large sums of money, but we have to have this discussion." Rising network fees and the fact that the federal government is now auctioning off land for wind farms for billions of dollars are causing electricity costs to continue to rise, to almost 20 cents per kilowatt hour, he said CEO.

Recently, several industry representatives had already complained about the high electricity prices in Germany compared to other countries - even though prices have now fallen somewhat following the energy crisis of the past two years.

Further systems in Ludwigshafen are on the verge of extinction

BASF at its Ludwigshafen site has so far been able to look at it relatively calmly. The company generates a large part of the energy it needs itself in three gas power plants. However, in order to meet climate policy goals, the group is increasingly purchasing green electricity and is dependent on the public networks. Brudermüller had therefore already demanded in the past that the state should subsidize the networks in the future.

»At 20 cents, German industry no longer needs to commit to decarbonization. She's dead before she even starts," Brudermüller told the FAZ. To put it into perspective: According to the Federal Association of the Energy and Water Industry, the average industrial electricity price for new contracts was recently just under 18 cents per kilowatt hour.

Germany is now feeling the consequences of rising energy costs over the past two years with a delay, Brudermüller told the “FAZ”. He doesn't see the danger of deindustrialization as "that radical," but the share of industry will "certainly decline." In his words, society “hasn’t yet understood what’s going on.”

At its headquarters in Ludwigshafen, the largest chemical complex in the world, BASF has already made a dramatic loss and has a real earnings problem. The group will probably have to close more plants and reduce its basic chemicals business. “There will be an adjustment that will be painful,” Brudermüller told the “FAZ.” However, the location will remain the largest in the group in the coming decades. He rejected speculation about a split.

The chemist Brudermüller has been at the helm of the world's largest chemical company since 2018. Markus Kamieth is to be elected as his successor at the general meeting on April 25th, and Brudermüller is to become chairman of the supervisory board of Mercedes-Benz shortly afterwards.

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