00:00So, Dirk, you're focusing on cost-cutting as the outlook stays challenging for the chemicals business.
00:05You've upped your cost-cutting target. How are you going to keep cutting at BASF?
00:11So, the competitiveness of BASF in the context of the chemical industry remains challenging.
00:17So, we have to go on. This is the one thing that we can currently influence the most, namely our
00:23cost base.
00:24So, we will overachieve our cost-saving programs that we have already put into place.
00:28But we will then continue also to increase our productivity with further efficiency measures.
00:35You're deciding to even sell some of the 4,400 housing units that you own and also cut jobs.
00:42Can you give us any more detail around where you might cut those jobs?
00:46Starting with the apartments and houses, maybe.
00:50This is basically not a cost-saving measure, the way we look into it.
00:57But this is rather now focused in challenging times to increase our competitiveness.
01:02And therefore, we believe it is rather the right thing to focus on what we are best in, namely producing
01:09chemicals and provide them to the markets than being in real estate.
01:14So, this is the reason for this step.
01:17In terms of cost-cutting, this goes across the different categories.
01:23Fixed cost and also personnel cost is certainly a big item.
01:27And this is where we have made significant progress already this year and will accelerate further in the next years
01:35to come.
01:35There is no target number which I would have at hand.
01:41But one thing is sure, in this still quite people-intensive industry, we have to go on with building down
01:50part of our structures.
01:53Is there a location that will be primarily affected?
01:56I mean, you're in Berlin, Montevideo, Kuala Lumpur and other places too.
02:00Yeah, if we talk about our service landscape, there's one clear trend and this is to concentrate further services in
02:11the so-called hubs.
02:12We are about opening two global hubs, both for digital services and business services.
02:20Very importantly, we will also keep the hubs that we have to date, call them regional hubs.
02:27We will keep them and also employ people there going forward.
02:32So we do not fully concentrate, but I'd say we are optimising our service landscape with more automation, more standardisation
02:41and also more platformisation.
02:45Dirk, the market is awash with overcapacity, right?
02:49How do you go about deciding on timeframes and forecasting supply and demand with something as difficult as this, right?
02:58When it's so difficult to know when the demand will come back?
03:02That is exactly the case.
03:04So we are unfortunately living in times of elevated uncertainty.
03:09And this is also why you have probably seen in our guidance range for the year 2026 that the range
03:15is relatively wide if you take all the assumptions in.
03:20The overcapacity that you've just mentioned is certainly one of the biggest challenges that the industry and we as a
03:27company are currently facing.
03:28The second one is certainly the FX headwinds that are burdening European companies specifically.
03:37But yes, we do not know exactly when the picture is improving significantly.
03:44Secondly, what we can say already today is that after a relatively slow start of 2026 in the course of
03:53the year, we would expect some improvement, which then should accelerate and intensify in the year 2027.
04:03Dirk, what is your plan for your battery materials unit?
04:06Are you thinking about potentially a listing or maybe a sale?
04:09Well, for our battery materials business, this is still an early stage business, as you know.
04:16And we said, and this I can confirm also, we are looking in various options with the goal to increase
04:25the profitability, but also the critical mass of the business.
04:31For us, for us, for us in BSF, we believe that the asset footprint that we have for battery materials
04:36is excellent, particularly in Europe.
04:39So we are now currently focusing on filling those capacities.
04:43We are earning money on battery materials in China, and we are overall looking into value enhancing strategic options, which
04:54could include more partners on various levels of the value chain.
05:00Yeah, I mean, you've opened the door to me asking, are you actually looking at anybody in terms of potentially
05:06creating synergies with BASF?
05:08And can you give us details if you are?
05:11Well, look, there's no details that could be mentioned here in the moment.
05:17It's a very dynamic and fluid market development.
05:22And you know that the European batteries materials market is still very early and still very low.
05:32So we are looking into everything that is value enhancing, starting with ourselves in terms of how can we do
05:39our business more cost efficient,
05:42but also certainly looking into where do we find synergistic partnerships, strategic partnerships, so everything is here thinkable.
05:52So for example.
05:52So let's see.
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