BASF Chemical Giant CEO Claims German Industry Will Continue To Shrink

March 20, 2024 (EIRNS)—Martin Brudermüller, CEO of the giant chemical company BASF, speaking to reporters yesterday in Brussels, said that due to high energy prices, industrial output would continue to decline. “I would say the word ‘deindustrialization’ is a very harsh one because it looks like everything is disappearing,” Brudermüller said in response to a question. Echoing European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde’s suggestion last month that Germany’s manufacturing-heavy economic model needed “to be revamped,” Brudermüller conceded that the country in particular “will be less attractive for energy-intensive industries.”