MOSCOW (MRC) -- BASF management and employee representatives have signed a new Ludwigshafen site agreement, according to Chemweek.
The agreement applies to the 34,000 employees of BASF at the site. It will run from 1 June 2020 until 31 December 2025 and replaces the current site agreement, which would have expired at the end of 2020.
BASF will continue to forgo forced redundancies for the duration of the agreement and will spend an average of at least EUR1.5 billion (USD1.6 billion) a year on investment, modernization, and maintenance at the site until 2025.
"We are facing a whole series of major changes, driven by demographic change, limited natural resources, and digitalization. The conditions under which we do business are changing at an ever-faster rate," says Michael Heinz, member of the board of BASF and site director. "If the Ludwigshafen site is to remain successful in a fast-changing business environment, we need to become more agile and flexible…With the new site agreement, we are supporting the necessary cultural change while also creating reliable framework conditions for our employees."
Sinischa Horvat, chairman of the works council of BASF, says, "Since the late 1990s, we have pursued two key objectives through the site agreements. The first is to demonstrate reliable and robust prospects for the development of the Ludwigshafen site through investments. The second is to lay out binding protective mechanisms for employees. We have achieved both of these once again in the agreement for 2025. Especially in view of the current crisis, the early conclusion of the 2025 site agreement is a strong, positive signal for the workforce and the region."
As MRC reported previously, BASF said in late April it will not be able to meet full-year sales and earnings guidance issued on 28 February and withdrew its outlook in advance of its first-quarter earnings report.
We remind that BASF 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 383,760 tonnes in the first two month of 2020, up by 14% year on year. High density polyethylene (HDPE) and linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) shipments increased due to the increased capacity utilisation at ZapSibNeftekhim. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 192,760 tonnes in January-February 2020, down by 6% year on year. Homopolymer PP accounted for the main decrease in imports.
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.
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