BASF has reported a decrease in sales for Q3 2020, down €745 million to of €13.8 billion when compared with Q3 2019.
According to the company, this was mainly driven by negative currency effects in all segments, and higher price levels overall, primarily due to higher precious metal prices in the Surface Technologies segment.
EBIT before special items also declined by €475 million to €581 million, BASF said.
Sales at BASF companies located in Europe declined by 12% compared with Q3 2019, and sales in North America declined by 6%. However, BASF improved sales in the Asia Pacific region by 10% compared to Q3 2019 figures.
‘In the third quarter of 2020, the global industrial economy recovered from the sharp downturn in the previous quarter,’ the company said. ‘However, global production levels were still around 3% lower than in the prior-year quarter. The automotive industry, which was particularly strongly affected by the production closures in the second quarter of 2020, was still down around 2% from the prior-year period in the third quarter of 2020.’
For the full year 2020, BASF said that it would expect a slight decline in sales compared with the previous year, due to weaker demand as a consequence of the coronavirus pandemic. For the 2020 business year, BASF therefore expects sales of €57 billion–€58 billion.
This story uses material from BASF, with editorial changes made by Materials Today. The views expressed in this article do not necessarily represent those of Elsevier.
