MOSCOW (MRC) -- BASF, the world's petrochemical major has committed itself to spend a total of at least EUR6 billion on investments, upgrading and maintenance measures between 2016 and 2020 at the Ludwigshafen site, as part of a new agreement, as per the company's press release.
Last week, the company and employee representatives at BASF SE in Ludwigshafen signed a new site agreement. The agreement, titled "Meeting the challenges of constant change together," applies to the approximately 36,000 employees of BASF SE at the site. It will run for five years (from January 1, 2016 until December 31, 2020) and follows on from the existing site agreement, which expires at the end of 2015.
The company will continue to forgo forced redundancies for the duration of the agreement.
Furthermore, BASF SE "Economic and social changes are occurring ever faster and are becoming less and less predictable. With the new site agreement, we are creating a framework that offers both flexibility and reliability and will enable the Ludwigshafen site to remain competitive - now and in the future. We rely on our team of dedicated and skilled employees and we will continue to substantially invest in the largest, integrated Verbund site of BASF Group in the coming years," said Margret Suckale, member of the Board of Executive Directors of BASF SE.
As MRC wrote before, BASF is significantly expanding its production capacity for about 20 specialty amines at its Verbund site in Ludwigshafen. BASF says it will invest a double-digit million euro amount in expanding current production facilities, which are planned to go on stream gradually by early 2017. The specialty amines are especially used for the manufacturing of coatings, lubricants, crop protection products and pharmaceuticals.
BASF is the largest diversified chemical company in the world and is headquartered in Ludwigshafen, Germany. BASF produces a wide range of chemicals, for example solvents, amines, resins, glues, electronic-grade chemicals, industrial gases, basic petrochemicals and inorganic chemicals. The most important customers for this segment are the pharmaceutical, construction, textile and automotive industries. BASF had sales of over EUR74 billion in 2014 and over 113,000 employees as of the end of the year.
MRC