BASF’s business continued to develop favorably in the first quarter of 2010. In conjunction with the recovery of the economy and some restocking of inventories by customers, demand has risen strongly in almost all divisions. At the same time, some chemical products were in short supply. Thanks to these improvements in the market environment, sales increased by 26% to €15.5 billion.
Income from operations before special items rose by 98% to €1.95 billion, primarily as a result of higher capacity utilization. Earnings improved significantly in almost all divisions. Measures to reduce costs and increase efficiency, as well as synergies from the Ciba integration, also contributed to improved earnings. Sales and earnings increased further compared with the fourth quarter of 2009.
"We have thus almost achieved the level of the very good quarters before the crisis. Especially our industry business, that is the Chemicals, Plastics, Performance Products and Functional Solutions segments, grew substantially thanks to renewed demand from almost all customer industries, particularly from the automotive, electric and electronic industries. Regionally, we saw high demand in Asia and South America. North America is also slowly recovering. Europe is bringing up the rear," said Dr. Jürgen Hambrecht, Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors of BASF SE at the presentation of figures for 2009 and the first-quarter 2010 during the Annual Meeting in Mannheim, Germany.
