Germany’s BASF Q2 income surges on one-off gains, higher prices, sales volumes

Q2 income from discontinued operations stood at €3.57 billion, compared with €80 million in the previous corresponding period.

In the first half of 2026, BASF’s net income surged to €5.07 billion from €889 million in the same period last year, with €3.63 billion income after tax recorded from discontinued operations.

H1 net income was augmented by gains from the sale of its Coatings business to private equity firm Carlyle – announced in October 2025 and completed in June 2026 – to which BASF received €3.5 billion after taxes.

BASF now holds a 40% stake in Surventis, the spin-off of the former BASF Coatings business, and the stake is worth about €1.3 billion, the company said.

Its Q2 sales jumped by 16.4% year on year to €17.2 billion, amid price increases in the Chemicals, Surface Technologies, Materials and manufacturing Solutions segments.

Sales volumes also increased in all business segments, BASF said, noting that negative currency impacts “had a dampening impact” on overall sales.

In the Chemicals segment, sales rose amid higher sales prices in the petrochemicals division amid supply bottlenecks arising from the Middle East conflict, while higher sales volumes were attributed to the start–up of the Zhanjiang Verbund site in China in late 2025-early 2026.

Special charges in earnings before interest, tax and depreciation (EBITDA) in the Chemicals segment came in at €16 million in the second quarter, primarily due to ongoing savings programs.

The number of full-time workers at BASF’s site in Ludwigshafen, Germany was reduced to below 30,000 as of might 2026, a move that BASF CEO Markus Kamieth called “crucial and necessary” in restoring the site’s competitiveness.

“We further strengthened BASF’s position in the market and achieved major progress with our restructuring as well as portfolio measures,” Kamieth said.

Since 2024, the share of “highly competitive” production units at the Ludwigshafen site has increased to 88% from 78%, while plant utilization rates improved amid supply disruptions caused by the Middle East conflict.

OUTLOOK BASF has revised up its full-year 2026 EBITDA before special items forecast to €6.9 billion-€7.7 billion, from €6.2 billion-€7.0 billion previously, amid better-than-expected operating performance in the first half of 2026 amid the efficiently closure of the Strait of Hormuz, which supported chemical prices and margins despite raising the company’s raw-material costs and supply-chain risks.

However, BASF lowered its global GDP development assumption to 2026 to 2.5% from its previous 2.7% forecast in February, amid heightened geopolitical risk as the second-half outlook depends heavily on access to the Strait of Hormuz.

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