“With our new strategy, we are setting BASF on a course for growth,” said Dr. Martin Brudermüller at the presentation of BASF’s new strategy in Ludwigshafen. The Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors highlighted the positive developments in recent years:
“Since 2012, our income from operations before depreciation, amortization and special items has grown on average by 8% per year, considerably faster than the 3% increase in fixed costs per year.” BASF’s earnings growth thus also outpaced the 3.7% annual increase in global chemical production.
Moreover, there was strong development in free cash flow in recent years and a high return on capital employed (ROCE), most recently 15.4%. Above all, the new strategy aims to grow sales and volumes.
BASF is concentrating on organic business growth. To grow faster, BASF will have an even stronger focus on its customers and develop tailor-made offerings for them.
With the aim of becoming faster and more flexible, the company will significantly simplify structures and processes, sharpen its portfolio and strengthen the Verbund. “We will transform our organization to be more customer-focused and agile,” said Brudermüller.
The Asian market, where BASF is already very well established, plays an important role in its growth strategy. With a world market share of more than 40%, China is the largest chemical market and drives the growth of global chemical production.
“By 2030, China’s share of the market will increase to nearly 50% and we want to participate in this growth,” said Brudermüller. “Our new Verbund site in Zhanjiang in Guangdong province and the expansion of the site in Nanjing will significantly enhance our growth in this dynamic market.”
In addition to the target of CO
2-neutral growth until 2030, BASF wants to generate around 22 billion € in sales with Accelerator products in 2025. These are products that make a substantial sustainability contribution in the value chain.
Leveraging Digitalization Across the Company
Digitalization offers unprecedented opportunities along the entire life cycle of BASF’s assets. For example, different processes or investment ideas can be simulated on computers, which helps to minimize costs.
Augmented reality is already being used to support the BASF workforce in daily operations. BASF aims to digitalize processes at more than 350 of its plants worldwide by 2022.
