BASF plans to cut 2,600 jobs

There are also cuts at the Ludwigshafen site. According to its own statements, the world’s largest chemical company BASF wants to cut 2,600 jobs worldwide. Around 700 more jobs in production are affected by cuts in the Verbund at the Ludwigshafen site, as the group announced.

The employees affected there should be offered work in other companies. BASF announced an austerity program last year because of skyrocketing energy costs in Europe and the slowdown in the economy.

From 2024, the company wants to save 500 million euros a year outside of production, half of it at the main plant in Ludwigshafen. As the largest industrial gas consumer in Germany, BASF suffered greatly from the increased energy and raw material costs last year.

Brudermüller complains about over-regulation

The focal points of the cost savings are service, corporate and research areas as well as the corporate headquarters. “The competitiveness of the European region is increasingly suffering from over-regulation,” said company boss Martin Brudermüller, according to the BASF release. It also suffers more and more from slow and bureaucratic approval procedures and above all from high costs for most production factors. All of this has slowed market growth in Europe compared to other regions for many years.

In addition, high energy prices are now having a negative impact on profitability and competitiveness in Europe. According to BASF, the adjustments in Ludwigshafen are expected to reduce annual fixed costs by more than 200 million euros from the end of 2026.

Several plants are to be closed

In addition to the cost-cutting program, BASF is also taking structural measures. Several plants are to be closed at the Ludwigshafen main plant, including the one for the Perlon precursor caprolactam, one of the two ammonia plants and the associated fertilizer plants and the one for the plastic precursor TDI, which only went into operation in 2015.

At the location in the Palatinate, the company employs around 39,000 of its 111,500 employees. According to the current site agreement, redundancies in Ludwigshafen are excluded until the end of 2025.