BASF starts 2024 with better than expected results. The German chemical company recently presented its results for the first quarter of the year at the General Shareholders' Meeting held in Germany.
However, sales did not exceed the previous year's figure and stood at 17.6 billion euros, 2.4 billion euros below the figure for the previous year's quarter. The decline in sales was mainly caused by lower prices due to lower raw material and energy prices in almost all segments and lower precious metal prices in the Surface Technologies segment.
The most notable growth in sales was in the Chemicals, Materials, Nutrition and Care segment.
EBITDA before exceptionals amounted to €2.7 billion, 5.7% higher than the average of analysts' estimates. Compared to the first quarter of 2023, it decreased by €153 million. The Nutrition & Care, Materials, Industrial Solutions and Chemicals segments increased EBITDA before exceptionals, in some cases significantly, mainly due to lower fixed costs as well as higher volume-related contribution margins.
Finally, EBITDA amounted to €2.7 billion, compared to €2.8 billion in the same period of the previous year.
The BASF Group's outlook for 2024, despite exceeding expectations in the first quarter, remains unchanged:
- Gross domestic product growth of 2.3% compared to the previous year.
- Industrial production growth of 2.2%.
- Growth in chemical production of 2.7%.
- EBITDA before one-offs of between 8.0 and 8.6 billion euros
- Free cash flow of between 100 and 600 million euros
- In terms of sustainability, German chemicals targets CO2 emissions of between 16.7 million metric tons and 17.7 million metric tons.