High gas prices caused by Russia’s war on Ukraine has hit manufacturers and their output
In Germany’s western industrial heartlands is BASF’s main Ludwigshafen facility, a sprawling complex that guzzles roughly as much gas as the whole of Switzerland.
Like many manufacturing giants, the chemicals maker has found that Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine and the new normal of high gas prices is challenging the business model the country’s industrial hubs were built on.
“These challenging framework conditions in Europe endanger the international competitiveness of European producers,” its boss Martin Brudermueller admitted in October as it unveiled permanent cost-cutting measures.
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