EBIT before special items amounted to an expected €1,348 million in the third quarter of 2022, considerably below the level of the prior-year quarter from €1,865 million and slightly above the analyst consensus for the third quarter of 2022 (Vara: €1,313 million). Increased prices for raw materials and energy could only partly be passed on through higher selling prices.

Against the background of significantly weaker earnings in Europe – especially in Germany, where earnings in the third quarter of 2022 were negative – as well as the deteriorating framework conditions in the region, BASF has initiated a cost savings program focusing on Europe and particularly Germany to be implemented from 2023 to 2024. Cost savings possible in the short term will be implemented immediately. Upon completion, the program is expected to generate annual cost savings of €500 million in non-production areas. More than half of the cost savings are to be realised at the Ludwigshafen site. Operating, service and research and development divisions as well as the corporate center are to be streamlined, the company said in a press release.

Further measures to structurally adjust BASF’s production Verbund in Europe in the medium and long term are currently being developed and are expected to be communicated in the first quarter of 2023.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (RR)