24 – Liabilities

Other bonds

Other bonds consist primarily of industrial revenue and pollution control bonds issued by the BASF Corporation group that were used to finance investments in the United States. Both the weighted average interest rate of these bonds and their weighted effective interest rate amounted to 3.0% in 2018 and 3.1% in 2017. The average residual term amounted to 168 months as of December 31, 2018 (December 31, 2017: 183 months).

Liabilities to credit institutions

Liabilities to credit institutions stayed at the previous year’s level. The weighted average interest rate on loans amounted to 5.6% in 2018 compared with 4.1% in 2017.

Unused credit lines

BASF SE had committed and unused credit lines with variable interest rates amounting to €6,000 million both as of December 31, 2018, and as of December 31, 2017.

Other liabilities

The decrease in non-current loan and interest liabilities and in current miscellaneous liabilities resulted primarily from the reclassification to the disposal group for the oil and gas business. Advances received on orders increased due mainly to first-time incorporation of the seed business acquired from Bayer. Contract liabilities, which were reported for the first time with the adoption of IFRS 15 in 2018, include mainly customer payments entitling them to access to licenses over an agreed period of time. The majority of existing contracts have terms of six years. Of the contract liabilities reported as of December 31, 2018, €31 million are expected to be recognized as revenue in 2019.

Liabilities to credit institutions were secured primarily with registered land charges. Other liabilities include collateral for derivative instruments with negative fair values. As in the previous year, there were no secured contingent liabilities in 2018.