BASF wants to focus more on alternative raw materials - News and insights for the European coatings industry

Oct 28, 2024

The chemical company BASF wants to focus more on alternative raw materials in production. ‘These can be anything, even chip fat or slurry, but mainly they are substances such as biogas or bio-naphtha,’ said CEO Markus Kamieth in an interview with Manager Magazin.

Kamieth believes that demand for green raw materials will increase sharply in the coming years. ‘Because all industries have to decarbonise. We are already buying it in, but we may also get involved in biorefineries.’

The group has largely taken the supply of its European sites, in particular Ludwigshafen and Antwerp, into its own hands. ’We will increasingly use green energy that we generate in our wind farms in the North Sea, as well as alternative raw materials. Our main plant in Ludwigshafen offers ideal conditions for this.’

BASF currently offers 40,000 products. ‘On request, we can produce each of these with a low carbon footprint. But this is expensive, and customers must be willing to pay this premium.’ BASF recently announced a comprehensive restructuring of the group, with the possible closure of further plants and job cuts in Ludwigshafen as well. Negotiations on a new site agreement are scheduled to begin in November. The works council has called for the exclusion of redundancies to be extended from the end of 2025 to 2030.

Kamieth said he could understand the employees’ sense of insecurity. “But I can’t completely take it away from them because we live in times of rapid change,” he emphasised. He added that in uncertain times it is all the more important that “everyone pulls in the same direction”. ’I am sure that we will succeed in doing so again with the works council.’

Source: dpa