The chemical company BASF is facing a massive restructuring. The business with agricultural products (Agricultural Solutions) and battery materials will be separated from BASF SE and transferred into legally independent units, the company announced on Thursday. However, a sale of the areas is not the aim of these measures and is not on the agenda.
According to the IG BCE union, almost 2,500 employees, almost ten percent of the workforce at the main plant in Ludwigshafen, will be affected by the spin-off. There are no plans for layoffs. This would give the stores more space to meet the needs of their customers, explained CEO Martin Brudermüller and CFO Dirk Elvermann at an investor conference on Thursday. The coatings business (paints and coatings) has been independent since 2010.
The IG BCE union spoke of bad news for the workforce shortly before Christmas. “The year ends for the employees as it began, with bad news that unsettles their colleagues,” explained district manager Gunther Kollmuß. The union insists on a documented waiver of sales; the new units must remain part of the BASF group. “When something is separated, it sounds like a sale to people. Experience shows that,” said works council leader Sinischa Horvat to the Reuters news agency. “But we were assured by management that the measures were only about making various areas more effective. BASF should remain an integrated company, and for this the company must build trust.”
The IG BCE and the works council also called for an extension of the location agreement at the main plant until 2030. According to the current location agreement, redundancies for operational reasons are excluded in Ludwigshafen until the end of 2025. In February, Brudermüller announced a new austerity program that would result in the loss of 2,600 jobs worldwide, almost two thirds of them in Germany. Several energy-intensive systems at the main plant in Ludwigshafen are to be closed.