Basf sales and earnings increase

Basf completed the first quarter of 2017 with a considerable rise in sales and earnings compared to the same quarter of 2016. “BASF has had a good start to the year 2017”, said Kurt Bock, chairman of the board of executive directors of Basf. “The demand trends we observed over the course of 2016 continued in the first quarter of this year”.

Basf Group’s sales rose by 19% in the first quarter of 2017 to 16.9 billion euros. In all segments, the positive volume trend seen in previous quarters was maintained and led to growth of 8% in sales volumes. Furthermore, Basf achieved significantly higher sales prices (up 8%), especially in the Chemicals segment. Currency effects and the Chemetall business acquired from Albemarle in December 2016 also contributed to the increase in sales.

Basf Group’s income from operations (Ebit) before special items was 29% higher at 2.5 billion euros. Of this amount, 2.0 billion euros was generated by the chemicals business, which comprises the segments Chemicals, Performance Products and Functional Materials & Solutions. Earnings in the chemicals business thus grew by 37%.

Basf received an initial insurance payment of 100 million euros in connection with the accident that occurred at the North Harbor in Ludwigshafen last October. Around three-quarters of this amount was recognized in the Chemicals segment.

Ebit grew by 585 million euros to 2.5 billion euros compared with the first quarter of 2016.

Net income rose by 322 million euros to 1.7 billion euros.

Basf’s expectations for the global economic environment in 2017 remain unchanged:

- growth in gross domestic product: 2.3%;

- growth in industrial production: 2.3%;

- growth in chemical production: 3.4%;

-an average euro/dollar exchange rate of 1.05 dollar per euro;

-an average brent blend oil price for the year of 55 dollars per barrel.