German Chemicals Giant BASF Posted Strong First-quarter Results

German chemical giant BASF Group said on April 29 that in the first quarter of 2021, the group's sales reached 19.4 billion euros, up more than 2.6 billion euros from the same period last year.Earnings before interest and tax rose 42 per cent from a year earlier to €2.3bn.

BASF said in a statement that it raised its full-year targets to between 68 billion euros and 71 billion euros in sales and between 5 billion euros and 5.8 billion euros in earnings before interest and tax on the back of a strong first-quarter profit.

Martin Brudermuller, chairman of the executive board of BASF Europe, said he was optimistic about BASF's profitability over the next few years, particularly as an expanded market share in China and the development of its battery materials business will drive overall growth.

However, BASF also said that the COVID-19 is still not over and the outlook for the world economy faces many uncertainties, especially the risk of disruption to the global supply chain that could hurt the growth of the chemical industry.

BASF, the world's largest chemical company, is expected to soon return to pre-epidemic profitability levels, according to an analysis by German newspaper Handelsblatt.The media outlet said that in the next few years, the global growth of chemicals demand will mainly come from China, so BASF is accelerating the layout in China, including the construction of a production base in Zhanjiang, Guangdong Province, to share in China's growth dividend.