A BASF employee at the Ludwigshafen plant during a night check
Image: dapd
Managers of the German chemical industry are accused of having made Germany dependent on Russia because of their greed. What a caricature! The industry was no more naïve than the rest.
Et needed a war to remind Germans how value chains work. That ethylene and propylene first have to be made from gas and oil in plants in the chemical industry – these basic chemicals are then processed into plastics, paints, textile fibers, adhesives, insulation material, detergents, cosmetics, even medicines. Even the staff involved only noticed all this again after an import ban from Gas as a last resort to stop the Russian war machine.
Hopes for change through trade have been dashed in Ukraine. However, the naivety persists. Above all, the naivety that captivated the supposed only beneficiaries of gas imports, the chemical industry. BASF I have driven the country into dependence on Russia with greed and billions in profits, public TV announced recently. Lord, what a caricature.