BASF will axe 2,600 jobs in a bid to save money as the chemical giant braces for a future without cheap Russian gas.
The current cuts would affect 65 percent of its German workforce.
More jobs were hit overall, but the company says the impact on employees will be eased through creating new roles.
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A share buyback programme will be stopped early due to “profound changes in the global economy.”
The chemical company intends to eliminate another 200 million euros in annual costs.
The cost-cutting drive includes a couple of factory closures, including two ammonia plants, which will lead would lead to 700 redundancies at its flagship Ludwigshafen factory in Germany.
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CEO Martin Brudermueller said: “Europe’s competitiveness is increasingly suffering from overregulation, slow and bureaucratic permitting processes, and in particular, high costs for most production input factors.”
Layoffs will mostly be in administrative and research roles, but several production lines would also be shut at its headquarters in Ludwigshafen.
It is home to BASF’s largest chemical complex, which employs over 39,000 people, the majority of whom are transferred internally.
BASF will suspend producing caprolactam, which is used in engineering plastics and textile fibres, in Ludwigshafen, instead using a production line in Belgium.
Source: CNBC
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