BASF profit woes
October 24, 2014
The world's largest chemicals company logged a 3-percent rise in sales in the third quarter, compared to the previous three months.
BASF said sales amounted to 18.3 billion euros ($23.2 billion) between July and September despite declining demand in the Agricultural Solutions segment.
The Ludwigshafen-based firm cited brisk business in its Natural Gas Trading sector as the main driver of growth in the third quarter, adding that income from overall operations in the period under review reached 1.8 billion euros, a quarterly jump of 9 percent.
A matter of global demand
BASF noted that unlike the situation in previous quarters, currency effects and portfolio measures had no material impact on sales.
In a year-on-year comparison, the company's net earnings dropped by 53 million euros to 1 billion euros.
While CEO Kurt Bock confirmed the chemicals giant's outlook for this year, he lowered the forecast for 2015, saying that instead of the previously predicted 14 billion euros in operating profit the company would now only aim for 10 to 12 billion euros next year amid growing fears of an economic slowdown in many regions of the word.
hg/ng (dpa, Reuters)