BERLIN, Feb. 25 (Xinhua) -- Sales of BASF increased by 33 percent year-on-year to 78.6 billion euros (87.9 billion U.S. dollars) in 2021, the German chemical company said on Friday.
After losses of more than one billion euros in the previous year, net income grew to 5.5 billion euros last year, according to BASF.
"It was a strong and successful year for BASF," said Martin Brudermueller, chairman of the BASF board of executive directors, in a statement. He added that all segments achieved price and volume growth in 2021.
Sales at companies located in Europe rose by 30.4 percent year-on-year to 31.6 billion euros, and sales in North America increased by 33.4 percent to 21.9 billion euros in 2021, according to the company.
BASF's sales in the Asia-Pacific region were 38.5 percent above the 2020 figure, at 20.6 billion euros. The increase in sales was primarily driven by growth in China, where sales rose by 42.5 percent.
"China is already the largest chemical market in the world and has high growth potential in the long term," BASF noted. "With the construction of our new Verbund site in Zhanjiang in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong, we want to further accelerate our profitable growth in the region."
In 2021, particularly in the fourth quarter, higher raw materials prices as well as increased energy and logistics costs burdened the earnings of BASF. For the company's European sites, the additional costs due to further increased natural gas prices rose to around 1.5 billion euros.
For the year 2022, BASF is expecting sales of between 74 billion and 77 billion euros. (1 euro = 1.12 U.S. dollars) ■
