Sites and Business Environment
Please note
The audited BASF Report will be published on March 21, 2025. The key financial figures published here are therefore to be regarded as preliminary. From today's perspective, no adjustments are expected.
The content of this section is not part of the statutory audit of the annual financial statements but has undergone a separate limited assurance by our auditor.
The content of this section is voluntary, unaudited information, which was critically read by the auditor.
Sites and Verbund
BASF production sites
BASF had 111,822 employees in 92 countries in the 2024 business year and operated 235 production sites worldwide. These include six Verbund sites, which are located in Ludwigshafen, Germany; Antwerp, Belgium; Freeport, Texas; Geismar, Louisiana; Kuantan, Malaysia; and Nanjing, China. A seventh Verbund site is currently under construction in Zhanjiang, China. We aim to start up the new Chinese Verbund site in the fourth quarter of 2025. The Verbund concept is one of our key strengths, enabling us to intelligently link and steer our plants and permitting resource-efficient, CO2-optimized and reliably managed production.
Business and competitive environment
As a global company, BASF is present in a large number of markets and operates in the context of various local, regional and global developments. These include:
- The global economic and political environment
- Legal and political requirements
- International trade agreements
- Industry standards
- Environmental agreements (such as the EU Emissions Trading System)
- Social aspects (such as the U.N. International Bill of Human Rights)
BASF supplies products and services to around 74,000 customers1 from various sectors in almost every country in the world. Our customer portfolio comprises mainly major global customers and medium-sized enterprises. We focus on a business-to-business model and on being a partner for a wide range of downstream industries throughout the world.
We work with over 70,000 Tier 1 suppliers2 worldwide. They provide us with important raw materials, chemicals, investment goods and consumables, and perform a range of services.
Our most important global competitors include Arkema, Bayer, Celanese, Clariant, Corteva, Covestro, Dow, DSM-Firmenich, Eastman, Evonik, Huntsman, LyondellBasell, SABIC, Sinopec, SYENSQO, Syngenta, Wanhua and many hundreds of local and regional competitors. We expect competitors from Asia, North America and the Middle East in particular to gain increasing significance in the years ahead, especially as a result of advantageous raw materials and energy prices. BASF is a top-three market leader in roughly 75% of its core businesses. Equally, our standalone businesses have good to leading positions in their respective markets.
BASF sales by region 2024
By location of customer
1 The number of customers refers to all external companies (sold-to parties) that had contracts with the BASF Group in the business year concerned under which sales were generated.
2 BASF considers all direct suppliers of the BASF Group in the business year concerned as Tier 1 suppliers. These are suppliers that provide us with raw materials, investment goods, consumables and services. Suppliers can be natural persons, companies or legal persons under public law.
These contents fulfill the disclosure requirements of the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS).