MOSCOW (MRC) -- German chemical giant Bayer is to appeal against a Missouri court's award of USD265m (203m) to a US peach grower who blamed a herbicide for crop damage, said BBC.
Farmer Bill Bader sued Bayer and BASF, alleging that dicamba weedkiller drifted onto his orchard from nearby fields, destroying them. It is the first ruling in some 140 US cases against dicamba, a herbicide blamed for extensive crop damage.
Bayer says its herbicides pose no unreasonable risk if used correctly. The US agrochemical giant Monsanto, bought by Bayer for $63bn in 2018, sells dicamba-based herbicide and a similar, much-criticised product, Roundup.
US lawsuits against Monsanto's weedkillers may cost Bayer billions of dollars in damages.
It is not yet clear how Bayer and BASF may share the cost of the Missouri damages. BASF said it would "use all available legal resources" to fight Saturday's ruling by a federal district court in Cape Girardeau, Missouri.
The firms were ordered to pay Mr Bader USD15m in actual damages and USD250m in fines. He argued that his 1,000-acre (405-hectare) orchard was destroyed by dicamba. In a statement on Monday, Bayer said it "clearly disagrees with the jury's verdict and is very disappointed".
"We will swiftly appeal the decision. While we have great empathy for any farmer who suffers from crop losses, in the case of Mr Bader there was no competent evidence presented which showed that Monsanto's products were present on his farm and were responsible for his losses."
Dicamba-based herbicides have been blamed for damage to thousands of hectares of crops in US Midwestern states. In November 2018 the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) imposed restrictions on dicamba use, because of the farmers' concerns.
Bayer insists that Monsanto herbicides are safe and "valuable tools for growers". The herbicides "do not pose any unreasonable risk of off-target movement when used according to label directions", the firm says.
As MRC wrote earlier, BASF, the world's petrochemical major, has restarted its No. 1 steam cracker following a maintenance turnaorund. Thus, the company resumed operations at the plant on September 30, 2019. The plant was shut for maintenance in mid-August, 2019. Located at Ludwigshafen in Germany, the No. 1 cracker has an ethylene production capacity of 235,000 mt/year and a propylene production capacity of 125,000 mt/year.
Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing PE and polypropylene (PP).
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 2,093,260 tonnes in 2019, up by 6% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. PE shipments rose from both domestic producers and foreign suppliers. The estimated PP consumption in the Russian market was 1,260,400 tonnes in January-December 2019, up by 4% year on year. Supply of almost all grades of propylene polymers increased, except for statistical copolymers of propylene (PP random copolymers).
BASF is the leading chemical company. It 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 generated sales of around EUR63 billion in 2018.
MRC