Petrochemical Giants Cut Jobs, Spin-offs, Restructuring Trend

Spin-offs and reorganizations are the trend

BASF
On December 7, BASF announced that it will separate its three large business units, Agricultural Products, Coatings, and Battery Materials, from the company's current structure and move them into legally separate units, according to a report in the German business newspaper Handelsblatt.

The three divisions of this spin-off will have their own information technology and control systems, but will remain part of the BASF Group.

In response to the spin-off, BASF's executive board has assured the labor council that the spin-off will simply make the three business units more competitive in the marketplace and that the company has no plans for layoffs. The German labor union is also reported to have asked BASF to extend the site agreement for the main plant until 2030, due to the fact that under the current site agreement, BASF Ludwigshafen is not allowed to lay off employees for operational reasons until the end of 2025.