By Pierre Bertrand

BASF SE shares fell after the German chemical company said Friday that it would implement additional cost-saving measures and cut production at its Ludwigshafen site in Germany, after reporting a decline in earnings.

At 0902 GMT shares traded 4.8% lower to EUR4963.

The company said that in order to improve the competitiveness of its operations in Ludwigshafen, it would close its caprolactam, toluene diisocyanate and precursor plants for dinitrotoluene and toluylendiamine and will reduce its production capacity of adipic acid.

Included in the cost-cutting measures, which are designed to save the company more than 200 million euros ($211.9 million) a year by the end of 2026, are the closures of one of two ammonia plants and associated fertilizer facilities and the closure of cyclohexanol, cyclohexanonethe and soda-ash plants, BASF said.

The company said that these latest measures, in addition to a previously announced cost-saving program it is implementing to save more than EUR500 million annually in non-production areas by the end of 2024, would affect around 700 jobs.

The moves come as BASF reported a EUR4.85 billion net loss in the fourth quarter of 2022, compared with EUR898 million profit in the last quarter of 2021, on sales that declined 2.3% to EUR19.32 billion.

Earnings before interest and taxes before special items declined in the fourth quarter to EUR373 million, compared with EUR1.23 billion in the prior-year period.

Net income for 2022 amounted to a EUR627 million net loss, compared to a 2021 profit of EUR5.52 billion.

Write to Pierre Bertrand at pierre.bertrand@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 24, 2023 04:33 ET (09:33 GMT)

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