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BASF to cut 2,600 jobs as energy crisis hits German industry
- Ambolia 4y agoPDF with the BASF information: https://www.basf.com/global/documents/en/investor-relations/calendar-and-publications/presentations/2023/BASF_Charts_Analyst_Virtual-Conference_FY-2022.pdf https://www.basf.com/global/documents/en/investor-relations/...
- badcppdev 4y agoSlide 13 is super interesting to me. They have been paying dividends to shareholders that have been smoothly increasing from 3.5% in 2013 up to 7.3% in 2022. This is one of their stated targets. To increase shareholder dividends and to grow the company. Is this not just having your cake and eating it too?
- valenterry 4y agoNot defending BASF, but inflation needs to be accounted for too.
- rootusrootus 4y ago> Is this not just having your cake and eating it too? I assume it just means they could have paid shareholders a larger dividend but chose to reinvest some of it for growth instead.
- mamonster 4y agoOver past 9 years dividend is only up 26%, yet the yield has more than doubled. Do the math on what happened to this business...
- KptMarchewa 4y agoThe crisis is so hard they won't be able to increase dividends. Sad.
- mvdwoord 4y ago[flagged]
- 2a0c40 4y agoThey should relocate to the US. Energy is way cheaper there!
- ceejayoz 4y agoYep, no layoffs happening in the US! /s
- Ambolia 4y agoWell, you are not so far from the truth, according to the BASF press release[1]: >Closure of the TDI plant and the precursor plants for DNT and TDA: Demand for TDI has developed only very weakly especially in Europe, Middle East and Africa and has been significantly below expectations. The TDI complex in Ludwigshafen has been underutilized and has not met expectations in terms of economic performance. This situation has further worsened with sharply increased energy and utility costs. BASF’s European customers will continue to be reliably supplied with TDI from BASF’s global production network with plants in Geismar, Louisiana; Yeosu, South Korea; and Shanghai, China. >Geismar, Louisiana [1] https://www.basf.com/global/en/media/news-releases/2023/02/p-23-131.html https://www.basf.com/global/en/media/news-releases/2023/02/p...
- mrtksn 4y agoCan the laid off JS developers do chemicals? Joking aside, the US is actually energy rich and it can make sense to do that.
- xkcd1963 4y agoWell it makes all the more sense to blow up Nordstream now! Oh wait..
- blitzar 4y agoHas the market for cassette tapes dropped off finally?
- farnerup 4y agoYes, I too though BASF was synonymous with VHS and cassette tapes.
- sbaiddn 4y agoThey are the best producer of chemical products in the world. I may be mistaken, but I think they're the ones that make the liquid crystals in LCDs (its some German company anyway).
- ElectricalUnion 4y agoYou mean vital semiconductors manufacturing building blocks and pharmaceuticals?
- ChemSpider 4y agoRising energy costs are only half the truth. "BASF to Cut 2,600 Jobs after losing 2 billions in Russian investments " could be the other headline. All their investments in Russia have been confiscated. This is a bit ironic, as BASF was on of the major forces that pushed Germany into its energy dependence from Russia. And what did they learn from it? => Hey, look, China! Let's invest another 10 billion there. They even fired Saori Dubourg just a few days ago - She was the only board member that disagreed with this China strategy.
- slater 4y ago*losing
- ChemSpider 4y agoFixed, thanks ;-)
- est31 4y agoThe confiscations hurt but the job cuts are also a future-looking statement: they think that Germany is a less useful place now for basing their production due to the higher energy costs. This trend is visible in many industries, but of course it's more pronounced in the energy intensive sectors. > Hey, look, China! Let's invest another 10 billion there. China is a rapidly growing economy. Where else should they invest? Also note, that unlike Russia even before the war, it's also the biggest trading partner of the USA. The USA was able to profit from the Ukraine war so much because they didn't have any relevant trading relationships with Russia, so it was easy for them to demand sanctions. But if there should ever be a time where China does something that requires sanctions, then the USA will feel it a lot. So it's a different situation here. Ultimately, if there is trade then there is also a common benefit. Russia brought cheap gas to europe, which was really great for the european economy.
- ChemSpider 4y agoNothing wrong with some investments in China. But there is a difference between "investing" and making the "largest investment ever". Basically their are betting half the company that China does not attack Taiwan and/or does not ship weapons to Russia and/or does not give them the "Jack Ma" treatment. Quite risky, if you ask me.
- mrtksn 4y agoThe glee over this is amusing. No, Europeans are not ready to give up to Russia for a price reduction just like democrat Americans are not ready to transfer the control of their bodies or love affairs to the republicans in exchange for cheaper gas.
- linuxftw 4y agoI fail to see how western Europe survives another 20 years. They don't have energy resources, they don't really produce industrial raw materials like iron and steel. They don't produce enough food for themselves. The engineering gap between them and the 3rd world is rapidly closing.
- rabite 4y ago[flagged]
- ceejayoz 4y ago> They don't have energy resources... What? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Sea_oil https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Sea_oil
- linuxftw 4y agoThese reserves are rapidly dwindling. How much will be left in 20 years? It seems almost none, unless they find new reserves.
- jimmytidey 4y agoGermany does have a plan: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energiewende https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energiewende
- 2000UltraDeluxe 4y agoI'd be surprised if we'd completely emptied the Baltic and Baltic seas of oil in 20 years, and if we do, there are alternatives.
- paganel 4y agoAfaik they are not abundant enough.
- pjc50 4y agoIt seems you've forgotten about the organisation that grew out of the European Coal and Steel Community with a common agricultural policy towards self-sufficiency? They've been doing some work in this area? https://www.eurofer.eu/assets/publications/brochures-booklets-and-factsheets/european-steel-in-figures-2022/European-Steel-in-Figures-2022-v2.pdf https://www.eurofer.eu/assets/publications/brochures-booklet... : "a turnover of around €125 billion and directly employs around 310,000 highly-skilled people, producing on average 153 million tonnes of steel per year." https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/infographics/how-eu-countries-are-addressing-the-global-food-crisis/ https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/infographics/how-eu-count... : EU remains one of the largest exporters. You're going to have to quantify "survive". And stop reading doomy implications out of fairly minor news changes.
- pjc50 4y agoThis seems somewhat more justified than the average tech company layoff: company turning cheap Russian gas into intermediate products hits economic difficulty as its raw material becomes dramatically harder to buy.
- starkd 4y agoaverage tech companies don't have to worry about costs?
- transcriptase 4y agoAnyone remember this viral clip of Germany reacting to Trump's UNGA speech about relying on Russian energy? https://youtu.be/FfJv9QYrlwg https://youtu.be/FfJv9QYrlwg
- jmugan 4y agoI'm no fan of Trump, but that clip with the Germans laughing is quite a time capsule.
- nivenkos 4y agoWe know, but what is the other option? The Americans want European industry to be destroyed and Europe to be dependent on their LNG. Sure, it'd have been best to invest in nuclear power (and nuclear fusion research) for the last 30 years, but right now that isn't a quick solution.
- oytis 4y ago> The Americans want European industry to be destroyed and Europe to be dependent on their LNG. Why would they want that? Europe is their closest ally wrt. to values and security interests. If US remains the only significant democratic country in the world, in presence of such strong antagonists as China, they are pretty fucked. > but what is the other option? The other option would be to at the very least diversify sources of gas, and aligning economic incentives with democratic values (setting tariffs appropriately etc.). Ideally investing in renewables earlier and much more than it was done/is being done.
- expertentipp 4y agoThe essence of German assholery. I guess they shut their cunning faces by now.
- paganel 4y agoThey get to reap what they have sown. That, or they should have factored in the 4x higher natural gas prices at which the Americans are providing them with (compared with the prices of Russian gas) since the very beginning.
- nivenkos 4y agohttps://www.youtube.com/shorts/jAm8cSBtA9o https://www.youtube.com/shorts/jAm8cSBtA9o - but they'll keep going "no matter what German voters think".
- Gravityloss 4y agoAFAIU a lot of the Ruhr valley region heavy industry has been built around coal. That can not be used in the future for climate reasons. This is true for iron reduction and steel making around the world. And then there's all the other industry that supports that heavy industry. So if the heavy industry goes, some of that other industry also goes. Europe should have multiple strategies for dealing with it. Steel, fertilizers, plastics and aluminum all are still needed in the future. Iron reduction needs to move to a place where cheap electricity and iron ore are available. Cheap electricity won't be available in the Ruhr valley in the absence of nuclear power in the future. It's a lousy place for renewables. Spain and Portugal would be absolutely terrific for renewables. I don't know about mineral availability though. Iron reduction -> steel -> car bodies -> car accessories etc. I call it the industry refactoring.