Investments

Portfolio management is an important part of our new strategy. Investments remain a key driver of our targeted profitable growth as well as our green transformation. Our focus is on high-growth markets. The establishment of a new Verbund site in Zhanjiang, China, which we have designed from the outset as a pilot project for sustainability, contributes to achieving these aims.

The primary aim of our portfolio measures and investments is to empower the core businesses and increase and more clearly emphasize the value of the standalone businesses. Investing in our plants is essential to achieve the profitable growth we strive for in our core businesses. We invest in new technologies in order to facilitate our own green transformation and that of our customers. At the same time, we are taking measures to increase the efficiency of existing production processes and therefore to improve the profitability and competitiveness of our operations. For the period from 2025 to 2028, we are planning capital expenditures (capex)1 totaling around €16 billion, including approximately €3 billion for the establishment of our Verbund site in Zhanjiang, China. Due to the investments in the Verbund site in Zhanjiang, our capital expenditures peaked at around €6 billion in 2024. We anticipate a slight decrease to around €5 billion for 2025. Starting in 2026, we are planning to reduce capital expenditures to well below the level of depreciation and amortization.

We drove forward our investment projects in 2024, focusing on the expansion of our position in our three key and attractive regions: Asia Pacific, North America and Europe. The Asia Pacific region and China in particular, which already has a significant influence on the growth of the global chemicals market with a share of around 50%, will continue to remain especially attractive. We expect that around 80% of growth in the chemical industry will be concentrated in this region by 2035. In order to participate in this and to serve the increasing demand from various growth industries in this region, we are establishing, for example, our new integrated Verbund site in Zhanjiang. Our focus is on getting the Verbund site operational as planned, with the cornerstones of the Verbund structure scheduled for completion in 2025. This site will already be operated using 100% renewable electricity starting 2025. We also continuously invest in the ongoing development of our other Asian sites, such as our expansion project in Kuantan, Malaysia, in tandem with our partner PETRONAS Chemicals Group Berhad.

In North America, our focus is on the expansion of our production capacities in the isocyanates value chain in Geismar, Louisiana. The project is on schedule and is set for startup in 2026. Our production capacity for methylene diphenyl diisocyanate (MDI) in North America will thereby rise from 380,000 metric tons per year to around 600,000 metric tons per year. The MDI expansion represents BASF’s largest single investment in North America.

In addition, we invested in our European sites. In 2024, we put a world-scale production plant for alkyl ethanolamines into operation at our Verbund site in Antwerp, Belgium, thus expanding our global production capacities for this product and its derivatives by almost 30%. In Ludwigshafen, Germany, we continued to drive forward our chlorine and aroma projects among other things. In Ludwigshafen, we also completed the world’s first electrically heated steam cracker demonstration plant in 2024. In Schwarzheide, Germany, we put our prototype metal refinery for battery recycling into operation.

Capex by segment 2025–2028

Capex by region 2025–2028