[Foreign language]
You listen to the conference. If you want to ask your question in English, you will also get an English answer. In this case, the German-speaking participants will listen to the simultaneous interpretation. Now I give the floor to Markus Kamieth.
[Foreign language] .
Thank you, Nina. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Dirk Elvermann and I would like to welcome you to our conference call. As you know, this is my first quarterly conference call as CEO, and I look forward to today's and many other press conferences, and I look forward to the discussion with you regarding BASF.
Today we will present our results for the second quarter of 2024 and provide further details about our business development. Let's start with an overview. Overall, the development of EBITDA before special items in the second quarter of 2024 was in line with our expectations and the analyst consensus. We saw a continuation of the dynamics of the first quarter, marked by positive volume momentum across most of our businesses. Volumes, excluding precious and base metals, increased by 2.4% compared with the second quarter of 2023.
There was still pressure on prices, but it has eased. Due to lower prices, sales declined by 7% to EUR 16.1 billion. We achieved an EBITDA before special items of EUR 2 billion, which is at the level of the prior year quarter. Overall, stronger earnings in our chemical businesses were offset by a considerably lower earnings contribution from the agricultural solutions segment due to a difficult market environment.
This is a snapshot which shows how the markets and our segments' volumes and specific margins developed in the second quarter. In a slightly improving market environment for base chemicals, we were able to realize strong volume growth in both divisions in the chemical segment.
EBITDA before special items increased considerably despite slightly lower segment margins due to a margin decline in the intermediates division. In the petrochemicals division, margins improved due to temporary supply constraints at competitors.
The materials segment benefited from slightly higher volumes, particularly in performance materials in an overall improving market. A considerable increase in margins was largely driven by a few product lines in the monomers division, especially in the ammonia value chain .
Overall, we were in a stable market environment, but we saw increases in volume growth and margin expansion. In particular, our dispersions and resins division contributed to the strong performance of this segment. Global automotive production was basically flat in the second quarter.
In this environment, volumes in our surface technology segment had a considerably negative impact on EBITDA before special items. In particular, environmental catalysts and metal solutions recorded lower volumes. Overall, margins improved, mainly due to the continued strong performance of our coatings division. The market environment for nutrition and care further improved in the quarter.
Both divisions achieved higher volumes as well as margin expansion, in particular in our personal care specialties and vitamins businesses. This supported the considerable increase in EBITDA before special items compared with the prior year quarter. The crop protection market is characterized by continued destocking and phased adverse weather conditions.
These two factors negatively affected business development in our agricultural solutions segment. The segment's EBITDA before special items was negatively impacted by considerably lower volumes and margins. All of these factors influenced the development of our EBITDA before special items compared with the prior year quarter. Despite the considerably lower earnings in the agricultural solutions segment, EBITDA before special items of BASF Group was at the level of the prior year quarter.
While the materials and the surface technology segments recorded slightly lower earnings, we were able to increase EBITDA before special items considerably in the industrial solutions, chemicals, and nutrition and care segments as well as in other. With that, I hand over to Dirk.
[Foreign language]
Well, thank you very much, Markus, and good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I will start with some further details regarding the development of our agricultural solutions segment in the first half of 2024. EBITDA before special items declined by 18% in the first half of 2024 compared with the strong prior year period and reached $1.5 billion.
To a large extent, this was driven by herbicides, in particular the active ingredient glufosinate ammonium, or GA for short. The GA business is increasingly affected by generic competition, alternative technologies, as well as high energy and raw material costs. Hence, we took decisive action and will cease production of this active ingredient at the Knapsack and Frankfurt sites in Germany by the end of this year. The formulation in Frankfurt will end in 2025.
The closure of the GA production and formulation plants will result in additional special charges and a low triple-digit million euro range in the third quarter of 2024. In the future, we will source the active ingredient from third-party suppliers. This will secure our competitiveness and profitability in the GA market in the long term. Ladies and gentlemen, let's now have a look at further financial details of the BASF Group for the second quarter of 2024 compared with the second quarter of 2023.
As Markus Kamieth already mentioned, our EBITDA before special items matched the level of the prior year quarter and was actually slightly higher. EBITDA before special items amounted to EUR 969 million and was thus almost at the prior year level. Special items amounted to - EUR 453 million.
Of these, around -EUR $300 million were related to the PFAS class settlement agreement in the United States between BASF Corporation and the U.S. Public Water Systems, which we announced in May. This amount was booked as a special item in other.
The remaining special charges were mainly caused by restructuring measures, particularly in connection with the ongoing cost savings programs focusing on Europe and the adjustments of production structures at the Ludwigshafen site.
Net income came in at EUR 430 million, EUR 70 million below the figure of the prior year quarter. Cash flows from operating activities decreased by 10% to EUR 2 billion, and free cash flow was EUR 471 million compared with EUR 905 million in the second quarter of 2023. I will comment on the cash flow development in more detail on the next slide.
BASF's equity ratio of 44.5% at the end of June 2024 remains solid and reflects our prudent financial policy. Let us now take a look at our cash flow development in the second quarter of 2024. Cash flows from operating activities decreased by EUR 228 million - EUR 2 billion, mainly on account of lower dividend payments from equity-accounted companies.
In the second quarter of 2023, cash flows from operating activities had included a dividend payment of EUR 291 million from Wintershall Dea and a payment of EUR 87 million from BASF YPC.
In the second quarter of 2024, we did not receive dividend payments from these two entities. Payments made for property, plant and equipment, and intangible assets rose by 16% to EUR 1.5 billion, particularly on account of the construction of our new Verbund site in South China, which is progressing on time and in budget.
Free cash flow amounted to EUR 471 million compared with EUR 905 million in the second quarter of 2023. On a half-year basis, free cash flow of - EUR 986 million was at the same level as the - EUR 977 million recorded in the first half of 2023. It should be noted that the development of BASF's free cash flow has a strong seasonality due to our agricultural solutions segment.
Finally, I would like to give you a short update on the implementation of BASF's cost savings programs. We are on track to achieve the targeted EUR 2.1 billion annual cost savings by the end of 2026. The implementation of the cost savings programs announced in February 2023 is in full swing.
As of the end of June 2024, we achieved a cost reduction run rate of around EUR 700 million, which is associated with one-time costs of around EUR 500 million. By the end of this year, we expect a cost reduction run rate of around EUR 800 million at one-time costs of around EUR 550 million.
We are also making good progress with a new program focused on the Ludwigshafen site that was announced in February 2024. The identification of cost savings measures is almost completed, and they will soon be implemented swiftly. On top of previously announced programs, this program will deliver annual cost savings of around EUR 1 billion by the end of 2026. The related one-time costs are expected to be around EUR 1 billion. W ith that, back to you, Markus.
[Foreign language]
Thank you. In view of recent market developments in the entire battery value chain, I'd like to give you further information on how we will move forward in battery materials. We are confident that the trend toward electric vehicles will continue and that battery materials remain a significant growth opportunity for the chemical industry.
However, recent dynamics have changed, and the market penetration of electric vehicles has slowed down significantly outside of China. This is shown by a number of announcements by companies in the e-mobility value chain.
Over the years, BASF has established competitive cathode active materials production capacities in the most important battery electric vehicle markets worldwide. We will continue to ramp up and fill these existing capacities. At the same time, we are taking action to further de-risk our path forward in the currently uncertain market environment.
We therefore continue with our prudent approach to add new capacities only where we have secured longer-term off-take agreements with established cell manufacturers. We recently announced that we have decided against an investment in a nickel-cobalt refining complex in Indonesia.
This decision came in response to developments in the nickel market, which has changed significantly in the past years. The supply options have evolved, so BASF has improved access to battery-grade nickel. This decision will significantly lower future capital requirements.
We have also decided to pause our large-scale refinery project for battery recycling at BASF's site in Tarragona, Spain. We are ready to go for it again when cell capacity build-up and the adoption rate for electric vehicles in Europe regain momentum. Let's now turn to BASF's outlook for 2024. The outlook and the underlying assumptions remain unchanged.
As published in the BASF Report 2023, we expect BASF Group's EBITDA before special items to reach between EUR 8 and EUR 8.6 billion in 2024. Our forecast assumes a certain improvement in pricing power in the second half of the year. From today's perspective, we expect market conditions in the seasonally lower Q3 to continue to develop in line with Q2 2024.
In the fourth quarter, we anticipate an uptick in earnings compared with the prior year quarter. Our forecast for BASF Group's free cash flow continues to be between EUR 0.1 and EUR 0.6 billion. CO2 emissions are still expected to be between 16.7 and 17.7 million metric tons in 2024. Ladies and gentlemen, this brings us to the end of our presentation on the second quarter. As most of you know, we are currently working on an update of our strategy.
We will present this on September 26 at our Capital Markets Day. You are invited to listen in to this event online. It will be followed by a special Q&A session for media representatives where you can ask questions. Of course, we have a Q&A session today as well. Dirk Elvermann and I are happy to answer any questions you have today.
Yes, thank you. Now we look forward to your questions. You can register your questions by pressing asterisk and one on your telephone. We have Patricia Weiss of Reuters. Good morning, Frau Weiss. Your questions, please.
[Foreign language]
Good morning to Ludwigshafen. I have three questions. The outlook. You said - 3% and said maybe 3% for the whole year. How do you want to reach this target, also in view of the weak situation in general? Now, glufosinate, will there be further plans you close down in this context? What about the situation in Harjavalta ? Finally, redundancies that you probably are planning in line with your savings program. You have not given us any concrete figures yet.
[Foreign language]
Yes. Good morning, Ms. Weiss. Let me start with the first question. How do you want to achieve our full-year guidance? I think we can say that in Q2, we meet the analyst consensus that is in Q2, we were able to prove that when it comes to our own ambitions and expectations, everything is fine. In the first semester, we saw a positive volume trend that was continued from Q1 into Q2. When it comes to prices, which still concern us because there's a lot of price pressure, the situation is improving slowly.
Quarter- by- quarter, we are below the previous year quarter, but price pressure is easing a little bit, which gives us hope for the second semester b ut we need price pressure to ease and give us some pricing power. This way, we are then well prepared for the second semester.
We cannot just continue with low prices, so this has to put into perspective, but things are going into the right direction. Ms. Weiss, let me take the other questions. To refer to the Ludwigshafen site, you asked about further plant closures, and what about an update regarding headcount? You know in this context that we have a cost savings program that we announced in February for Ludwigshafen. EUR 1 billion of savings are the target by 2026.
On purpose, we did not mention any headcount figures because we are talking about fixed cost and variable cost savings. The start of the program ran very smoothly, and we are in constant discussion with our worker representatives, and measures are becoming more concrete and in close coordination with the worker representatives. We drive them forward.
We don't have an update, and we don't have an ambition to relate this to a major headcount discussion because it's work in progress, and our goal is to save EUR 1 billion. This will lead to changes in the headcount, but there is no concrete new target, and we do not want to quote new headcount figures every quarter.
The second question, plant shutdowns, also in view of the Ludwigshafen cost savings program, and also when it comes to developing a target picture for Ludwigshafen, of course, we will go ahead with plant adjustments.
The good news is our analysis showed that the core of our Verbund in Ludwigshafen still is competitive, but it also turned out that several plants, especially when looking into the future, have difficulties in terms of competitiveness, and more plant shutdowns will have to be considered, and we will communicate it at the right point in time.
Of course, looking into the future, things will keep changing at the Ludwigshafen site, but this is nothing new. The Ludwigshafen site has always gone through changes. In the past, we adjusted our plant landscape, and we will continue to do so. Your next question about Harjavalta in Finland for battery materials precursors.
I can tell you that a few weeks ago, we received the approval to operate the site as requested. However, the proviso is that there can be protests against this approval again, so we have to wait and see how we start up this site when there is a decision that cannot be protested against, which is not the case right now. Next question of Mr. Reitz from SWR. Good morning, Mr. Reitz.
[Foreing language]
Good morning. Thank you very much for the possibility to ask questions. I would like to continue with what you said on the Ludwigshafen site. You said that you are making good progress and that you implement everything very good.
That sounds as if it were easy, but I can imagine that there are challenges to actually identify the things that you just mentioned, and I would be interested where the challenges actually lie and whether you are adapting your strategy just now when it comes to e-mobility and battery chemicals.
Now, we have to also assume that there's going to be adaptations, maybe also in the Ludwigshafen site, by way of the ambitious aims of the climate policy. So are there any projects going on? There are some pilot projects already up and running a nd are there any projects that are going to be discontinued?
[Foreign language]
Thank you very much, Mr. Reitz. First of all, let me tell you that definitely it is a big challenge also for the Ludwigshafen site to have a cost savings program of this size and to implement it. Maybe it sounded simple, but it is not at all. We really have to turn around every individual stone, check everything.
The building is not just sitting outside of the perimeters of the site. Maybe I sounded a little confident in my answer because I see that so many people work in concrete measures trying to achieve this target. We have to use everything, really, starting from, as I said, closing plant or partial parts of the plants, and also the question of how will we proceed when it comes to purchasing and procurement.
What about administration? How will we use productivity gains with the help of AI? It is a broad range of projects in this program. I see a lot of challenges, but I see also competent people that are very motivated. We are confident, but it is not easy.
On the subject of strategy, and particularly looking to climate change, you connected Ludwigshafen site with e-mobility. Ludwigshafen is not producing any battery materials here. This is all elsewhere. T hen you also asked for the strategy and the climate targets that we have. I do not see reason now to question our ambitious climate targets.
Over the last years, we have developed very strongly towards being more concrete when it comes to sustainable and climate targets. The most prominent ones are the CO2 targets for 2023, 25% of our global carbon footprint when it comes to scope one and two, the specific reduction of our scope three targets, and the commitment 2050 to be net carbon zero.
T hese targets will go on. They are still applicable, and we are very enthusiastic when it comes to achieving these aims, enthusiastic and creative. Looking forward, we will continue to use and apply significant means and also use our strategy to achieve them. Thank you very much. The next question comes from Ms. Höfler from Wirtschaftswoche. Good morning.
[Foreign language]
Good morning. I would like to ask two questions. First of all, you were talking about challenges in the battery materials business. I would be interested about the capacity utilization of Schwarzheide. You said this is booked out for years. Has this changed due to the developments? That's my first question.
Question two would be, in the past year, you already speculated whether in 2024 a dividend will be paid out and whether it's going to be a lower dividend or if you could have a stable dividend policy. I would be interested if there are any plans for the dividend policy of BASF, whether anything is changing or whether you will wait for the new strategy. So is there going to be an adjustment in your dividend policy?
[Foreign language]
Thank you very much, Ms. Höfler. You were asking for the dividend. That's going to be answered by Dr. Elvermann. Battery materials, capacity utilization. The plant in Schwarzheide, both lines is mechanically ready. A s you said quite correctly, we have full contracts, so the volumes and capacities are laid down and guaranteed in contracts.
But of course, we are in the ramp-up phase just now a nd the qualification processes for these cathode-active materials that are the most important and most sensitive material in batteries are time-consuming. J ust now, we are making available the necessary volumes that are definitely needed for the ramp-up. I'm not going to talk about the full capacity utilization figures, but this is what we do now.
[Foreign language]
Dirk, now on the dividend. Ms. Höfler, we have a very successful dividend policy in place, I would say. For the year 2023, in May 2023, we already paid out. It was $3 billion, and it came almost fully from the full cash flow that we generated in 2023 and so w e are very proud of having been able to do that.
We know we have a very attractive dividend policy, 7% dividend yield. That is at the upper margin of what you see if you look around in the industry and in the market environment. Looking forward, we will, with the dividend policy, look at how we can be attractive for our investors.
In the framework of the strategy update, we talked about capital allocations in general, and we'll be talking about it. We are quite aware that an attractive dividend for BASF shareholders has great importance. Thank you. Then we take Mr. Jungert from Mannheimer Morgen. Hello, Mr. Jungert.
[Foreign language]
Hello and good morning. I have three questions to Mr. Kamieth. The first question was already touched upon briefly. You are working around the target picture for Ludwigshafen. I know the process is still running, but still, maybe you can tell us a little more about where you're headed.
The second question, negotiations on a new site agreement are supposed to take place for Ludwigshafen. What are your expectations and what are your targets here? The third question, your site manager, Uwe Liebelt , in Ludwigshafen at an event described the site conditions here in Germany. He said that they get worse and worse, and I would like, or I'm interested in whether you agree with him on that.
[Foreign language]
Mr. Jungert, thank you very much. First of all, I do not want to go into the smallest nitty-gritty of our target picture. Ludwigshafen, we are still working on it, and we first have to talk with our employees, talking with them about what we think about our future. But let me say about one thing very clearly.
Sometimes I'm a little surprised by the media, how they describe the Ludwigshafen site and what is going to happen here. Often the word exit is used, and this is what surprises me a lot. I can only assure you, BASF of the future will be competitive, strong, and profitable, and that is possible with a reliable Ludwigshafen site.
It will be a strong pillar of the Ludwigshafen strategy, and Ludwigshafen will remain the biggest and most important production site of BASF. In Ludwigshafen, we are faced with challenges. We have to firstly adapt the Ludwigshafen site to a market environment where we don't see such strong growth in Europe in the chemical industry anymore. We can't expect this.
In the past, we exported a lot from Ludwigshafen into the world, and that will be less so in the future due to the changing competitive conditions in Europe compared to the rest of the world. Of course, we have to anticipate the green transformation here in Ludwigshafen. All this flows into the target picture of Ludwigshafen, but I'm quite confident that we can form a plausible and robust and attractive target picture, and we will describe it in September in its first version.
Rest assured, in its core, the target picture is very strong. We will have to work around the weaknesses, but we will never question the site. Second subject, site agreement. I do have a very pragmatic view on that. I think in the past, we have always had good site agreements here in Ludwigshafen. It worked well.
In the discussion with the employee representatives, it helped us because we developed a vision together. We are always open for the site agreement. We want to continue this. There are negotiations up and coming now, you said so. The conditions of a site agreement, of course, have to fit in with the target picture.
I do hear, or I hear and see positive signals coming from the employee representative side, but also from Katja Scharpwinkel, who is the site head of site and the labor director. The signals are very positive, and I'm optimistic.
When it comes to the site and development of the basic conditions for the site here in Germany, let me give you my personal view here rather than commenting what the press reported on what others said. First of all, I consider it positive that in Germany and in Europe, important politicians are looking more into the topic of industrial politics and competitiveness of the industry.
This is positive. This was different in the past where other issues were prioritized. Here and there, the competitiveness of industry fell by the wayside. I think we are seeing some change here based on initiatives I perceive from Berlin and from Brussels. Of course, you have to put your money where your mouth is, but not everything is possible either.
You are more familiar with the discussion regarding financial leeways. We insist that it must be top priority for Germany and for Europe to make sure that we have a competitive environment here. The issue of infrastructure of the future, this is about how can green transformation be accelerated by smart incentives, and how can we make sure that Europe and Germany stay competitive.
There's a lot of work to be done. A lot of it can be commented. We can criticize a lot what happened in the past. I would like to go into a positive direction, and I want to make a constructive contribution. Thank you. Mr. Burger of Reuters. Hello, Mr. Burger.
[Foreing language]
Good morning. Thank you. Question: when it comes to the Suez Canal crisis, the effect was that it prevented some Chinese exporters from reaching the European market. Do you still see this effect, or are they just going around Africa using different routes?
[Foreign language]
Mr. Burger, let me answer the question. The effect you described in a correct way was very pronounced in the first quarter. The workaround via the Cape of Good Hope was described very well.
It is continuing in the second quarter, physically regarding transport routes, but also regarding the understanding of our customers that transport from Asia to Europe is more vulnerable than you might have thought, and that it is a good idea to have a European supplier. So to make it short, the trend is continuing, but not to the extent we saw in Q1. Now we will go to the English-speaking conference. Question in English is from Andrew Noel from Chemical ESG. Hi, Andrew.
Hi there. Thank you for taking my questions. I've got three, please. The first is on battery materials. You say that it's implied it's a problem of EV penetration slowing down. Is there not a wider issue of real competitive issues with the Asian players being more advanced and also the NMC versus LFP debate, LFP sort of developing quickly and winning out? That's the first question.
The second question is on GA. I thought that was an interesting development, and I wondered if it's an isolated case or whether that kind of outsourcing model could be expanded. I mean, at the end of a day after a glass of wine or two, do you ever sort of think that BASF could do without having its own plants and focus on what it does so well, innovation and just farm out the manufacturing?
The last one is on PFAS. I think earlier this year, you booked a provision of about EUR 360 million. But that was just down to firefighting. I wanted to ask how big a threat is that the whole PFAS thing gets much broader, deeper?
BASF has been very active in food packaging, cosmetic packaging, and so on. This whole PFAS debate could go from being something much more emotional when it comes to that without needing to prove that there was contact, if you follow my thinking there. Thank you.
Yeah, Andrew, Marcus, may I start with the first two questions maybe? Battery materials, yes, you're right. There's a lot of moving parts in the battery materials or battery value chain overall, and all the things you mentioned are dynamic. They are ongoing. They affect all players in the value chain, not only the cathode manufacturers like BASF, but also the cell manufacturers, the battery manufacturers, and the OEMs as well.
The EV penetration is a big one. We pointed that out that this has slowed down and created probably a lot of insecurity behind that EV penetration. There's a lot of aspects as well, like cost competitiveness and so forth. But you're right also, the ongoing technology development, both on the NMC side and the LFP side, is also very dynamic. We see various different trends. We are an NMC player.
We only produce NMC cathode materials, and we also see technology trends, for example, going towards high manganese products, which make the material much more competitive on a cost basis also to LFP as an opportunity for us.
This is also creating a lot of insecurity in the market. Last but not least, also the competitiveness of Asian players versus European players and players in North America, but also, again, on all levels of the value chain. This is where all of these things come together that create this insecurity that we try to describe.
Maybe we're a little bit simplistic in our description, but the consequence is the same that right now it is something to be watched very carefully. We are confident that we have good assets, very competitive assets.
At this point in time, we feel good with the battery materials business that we have, and we are just cautious with further investments in time of high market insecurity. With regards to your big question on whether BASF should outsource all its manufacturing, I am of the opinion that actually manufacturing products at competitive costs safely on a large scale is actually one key strength of BASF.
This is the source of what we do. We develop, we innovate products and processes, and then we bring products at competitive costs to scale. I continue to see manufacturing operational excellence and safe operation. I continue to see this as a key strength of BASF in almost all of our business. Outsourcing certainly is not going to be a strategic direction.
But in individual cases, this is good for us to use also the strength of associates in the industry. This is an example where in glufosinate ammonium, this is very favorable for BASF. But you can, in your head, after also a glass of wine, Andrew, think about BASF as a manufacturing company.
Okay. Andrew, I take your question on PFAS. So we feel good about the settlement that has been reached, in which you have correctly stated. The settlement is fully provided for, and this pertains to the so-called water district cases, which we settled, I'd say, as good as it can get.
We are by far not the biggest defendant here, as you know, but rather a smaller defendant. We inherited that case with the acquisition of Ciba. So this is not rooting in our own production of PFAS. This all puts things a little bit in context. Is the PFAS story over with that? I think we made a decisive step with the settlement.
If there were claims coming beyond water district cases, which is not to be ruled out, we would fight that vigorously. But with the settlement we have reached, we are as content as you can be.
Thank you. Now we go to Tom Brown from ICIS. Good morning, Tom. It looks like he just dropped out, I'll just check. Is he still on the line?
Hello, can you hear me?
Yes, now we can hear you.
Apologies for that. Thank you. Just a couple of questions. Again, first off, on battery materials, just taking a more macro look, I just wondered what you think is causing that lower than expected demand.
Do you see it as a blip, or do you see the kind of growth of the market being slower than was anticipated? Also, on the Ludwigshafen, you mentioned that it may be less export-oriented globally than it had been at one point. Is that a wider story you see across operations, or is that a European thing primarily?
Just finally, we have Ursula von der Leyen confirmed again for the European Parliament last week. In terms of the things set out in her speech, like the clean industrial deal and cutting red tape, do you think these kind of moves are sufficient to help safeguard the industry, or would you like to hear more from the commission? Thanks.
Yeah, thanks, Tom. On battery materials, as I said in my speech, we believe that the trend towards electromobility as the powertrain technology of the future is still valid. We also believe that the growth in battery materials is going to be very substantial, and the biggest growth opportunity for that probably right now exists in the chemical industry.
That also means that a lot more batteries will be produced in the future, which provides a lot of other opportunities for BASF. We sometimes don't talk about this, but a lot of our businesses are actually engaged in the whole battery ecosystem because the whole battery system actually needs a lot of chemicals, which is a big growth opportunity for BASF, even beyond battery materials. I believe this is right now an element of market insecurity.
It's not unusual that in, let's say, fast-growing, quickly scaling markets, you have these breakpoints where you say, "Okay, now the next phase of growth will have to be initiated. Capital will have to be deployed." If then regulatory or market insecurities come, that can lead to delays in short-term delays in ramp-up curves. This is what we are currently seeing from my perspective, especially here in Europe.
As you know, this surprise of, let's say, taking incentives away from consumers has caused a lot of insecurity at the consumer level with regards to buying electric vehicles. So I would say, I don't know whether I would follow your description of a blip, but it's, from my perspective, rather a short-term stretching of a growth curve that inevitably will be a really big one.
In Ludwigshafen, you asked about the role of Ludwigshafen as an export hub. I would say our core positioning of Ludwigshafen will be a sustainable production site for the European market at large. There will always be export opportunities because, as you know, in the chemical industry, a lot of products are also only produced in one part of the world. But at large, I would say the Ludwigshafen site, we see this as a site for the European market.
Is it a bigger theme? I would say, in general, BASF has always followed the strategy of making our products in the key markets where our customers sit. That is a localization strategy, as we have discussed often in the context also of China. I would say it's nothing new for us. I think the whole chemical industry is moving more towards this direction.
However, international product flows, especially in commodity chemicals, will, of course, always depend on differences in energy cost and raw material cost. I would say, in general, the chemical industry will continue to be a regional, rather local industry for the large part, with communicating supply chains where products can travel and arbitrage windows are open. That's basically the general picture.
Ursula von der Leyen's speech, I've read it. I have to say, and I said this a little bit before when I talked about the framework conditions also in Germany and in Europe, the words are interesting. I hear the words.
I'm a very pragmatic person, so I am more confident when I see the actions. I have learned now that from announcements to actual concrete actions in politics, sometimes things change, and things can also take a quite long time. I stay positively expecting.
I think the change in tonality coming from the European Commission is positive. I personally see this also strongly influenced by the initiative of the European industry, the so-called Antwerp Declaration. I think where also Martin Brudermueller was very influential of putting this in front of the European Commission. I think this is a result, what we're seeing right now of this push. I'm optimistic, but I stay skeptical until I see real concrete regulatory and policy action.
Thank you very much.
Thank you. That was the last question. We have no further questions. We switch back to German. [Forign language]. That was it from our side. Thank you very much for your interest in BASF and your participation in our conference call. If you have questions, please contact our press office. As Markus Kamieth announced on the 26th of September, we will present a strategy update and will also have an afternoon media event.
Details of how to dial in, you will get in due time in the course of the third quarter, or we will report on the course of the third quarter in the framework of a call conference on the 30th of October. We would be very pleased if you joined us on these two events. Thank you very much and have a safe and good day.