LUDWIGSHAFEN, Germany (Reuters) – BASF said competition from Chinese rivals shipping their products into European chemical makers’ home markets is at unprecedented levels and disruptions of the Red Sea transport route only have a temporarily dampening effect.
“We see imports from China coming in in an order of magnitude like never before. There’s capacity coming up in many product lines in China,” BASF CEO Martin Brudermueller said in an analyst call after the release of full-year results.
Attacks by Yemen’s Houthi group on Red Sea shipping has led “customers in Europe to rethink their supply strategies and also go back to European (suppliers) to be more resilient. But I think this is a temporary effect,” he added.
(Reporting by Ludwig Burger, Editing by Rachel More)
