1509 GMT - BASF is among the most mentioned companies across news items over the past 12 hours, according to Factiva data, after the German chemical company said it would close plants and shed jobs in Germany to cut costs. BASF said that it would adapt production at its Ludwigshafen site as part of measures expected to cut costs by EUR200 million a year from 2026. That move is in addition to a previously announced plan to save at least EUR500 million a year from 2024. "Europe's competitiveness is increasingly suffering from overregulation, slow and bureaucratic permitting processes, and in particular, high costs for most production input factors," BASF Chief Executive Martin Brudermueller said, adding that high energy prices were an additional burden on competitiveness and profitability in Europe. The company said it faced EUR3.2 billion in additional energy costs in 2022 and that it expects high raw material and energy costs will hurt demand in 2023. BASF also said that impairments due to the deconsolidation of Wintershall Dea's Russian exploration and production activities swung the company to a EUR627 million net loss in 2022, compared with a EUR5.52 billion profit in 2021. Dow Jones & Co. owns Factiva. (pierre.bertrand@wsj.com)

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 24, 2023 10:25 ET (15:25 GMT)

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