By Patricia Weiss
FRANKFURT, June 9 (Reuters) – BASF will not push to defend its years-long top rank among the world’s largest chemical companies by revenues to instead focus on creating value amid unprecedented upheavals and shifts in the industry, the German group’s CEO said.
• “Size in itself is not a goal for us,” CEO Markus Kamieth told journalists late on Monday
• “We may no longer be the biggest in the world – others will overtake us in terms of sheer size – but we will remain one of the most valuable companies in our industry,” said the CEO
• Kamieth said the business environment was at its most difficult in at least the last 25 years, with the global balance of industrial power shifting
• Last year, BASF’s group revenues of €59.7 billion ($68.9 billion) were broadly neck and neck with the chemicals segment of China’s Sinopec with 464 billion yuan ($68.5 billion) in operating revenues
• Also among the largest global players in the chemical industry, U.S. rival Dow had $40 billion in 2025 sales, while PetroChina’s refining, chemicals and new materials division reported combined sales of 1,078 billion yuan ($159.18 billion)
• Kamieth highlighted BASF’s struggle to slash greenhouse gas emissions in Europe: “The green transition is technically feasible. But making it economically viable is an incredibly challenging task”
(Reporting by Patricia Weiss, Writing by Ludwig Burger, Editing by Linda Pasquini)
By Patricia Weiss | Reuters | © Copyright Thomson Reuters 2026.
