Wednesday October 27, 2021
Bigger quantities, higher prices
BASF shifts up a gear
The global economic recovery is filling BASF’s coffers. The chemical giant can raise its forecast again. The customers order more and they also pay for it.
The chemical company BASF is shifting up a gear as it recovers and is raising its annual targets once again. The company continues to expect solid demand, especially in the basic chemicals business and in the plastics sector. This should also compensate to a certain extent for rising raw material, energy and freight costs. The Ludwigshafen-based company is assuming that delivery bottlenecks will continue to affect the global economic recovery in the last three months of the financial year. The chemical industry, and with it the industry leader, BASF, is an important economic indicator because its products are needed in all major branches of industry.
In the summer, the operating result (EBIT) before special items rose to just under 1.9 billion euros, after 581 million euros in the same period of the previous year. Analysts had expected an average of 1.8 billion euros. Income increased by 42 percent to almost 20 billion euros. “Compared to the third quarter of the previous year, we were able to increase prices by 36 percent and volumes by six percent,” said CEO Martin Brudermüller. The bottom line was around 1.3 billion euros. Years ago, a loss of 2.1 billion was incurred due to value adjustments and restructuring costs.
After three quarters of the financial year, the company now expects annual sales between 76 billion and 78 billion euros. The operating result before special items should level off in the range of 7.5 billion to 8.0 billion euros.