RIGA - Chemical Company BASF has announced that it has been forced to cut some 1,500 jobs despite an 8 percent rise in sales, to 62.3 billion euro, in the last year.
The worsening market hints that not only BASF is struggling, but that the entire chemical market is continuing to shrink.
"Following the dramatic drop in our global business in the fourth quarter of 2008, demand for chemical products has not picked up since the start of 2009. A reversal of the trend is not yet in sight," said Jurgen Hambrecht, CEO and Chairman of the Board of BASF.
Despite the tidings of economic crisis, in the agricultural solutions segment sales increased by 9 percent due to strong demand for crop protection products resulting from high prices for agricultural produce.
Agro BASF Latvia crop protection has just released its 2009 crop protection handbook, based on strategic importance of various Latvian crops.
BASF Baltics is represented by their head office in Lithuania, while the office in Finland has worked with the Nord Stream Baltic pipeline project.
The annual report announced that the company's stake in Nord Stream AG is a significant component of their growth strategy in natural gas trading. Nord Stream is constructing a pipeline from Russia through the Baltic Sea to the German coast. Planning has continued, though the process will take longer than initially expected.
Meanwhile, underground gas storage facilities in Dobele, Latvia are hoping to see input from the Nord Stream pipeline as talks were launched at the end of 2008 regarding the pipeline's construction. According to a representative at BASF, only Latvia accepted the offer to hold talks.
Lithuania is not searching for alternative gas routes and Estonia has not considered talks and has banned construction of the pipeline in Estonia's territorial waters.
All of these discussions, however, are on hold for the time being as the company works to come out on top. It provides materials to nearly every sector of the chemical industry.
"I cannot say how long the crisis will last and when we will turn the corner. What I do know is that we will also use these difficult times to make BASF better than ever," said Hambrecht.
BASF, founded in 1865, consists of more than 160 subsidiaries around the world with customers in 200 countries. Headquarters are located in Ludwigshafen, Germany.
The company has over 96,000 employees and posted sales of 62 billion euros and income from operations of over 6.8 billion euros.
