BASF has released preliminary figures for the fourth quarter of 2020 and the full year 2020.

Sales increased by 8% in the fourth quarter of 2020 to €15,905 million (Q4 2019: €14,686 million). This was mainly driven by higher volumes and prices; negative currency effects had an offsetting effect. Full year 2020 sales declined by €167 million to €59,149 million (2019: €59,316 million) and were thus above the €57 billion to €58 billion range forecast in October 2020.

The BASF Group’s operating business performed better than expected in the fourth quarter of 2020. EBIT before special items amounted to an expected €1,113 million, an increase of 32% compared with the prior-year quarter (Q4 2019: €842 million) and slightly above the highest analyst estimate. Compared with the third quarter of 2020, EBIT before special items rose by an expected €532 million in the fourth quarter of 2020 (Q3 2020: €581 million).

In the full year 2020, EBIT before special items of the BASF Group amounted to an expected €3,560 million and was thus above the €3.0 billion to €3.3 billion range forecast in October 2020 and slightly above the highest analyst estimate. This corresponds to a decline of 23% compared with EBIT before special items for the prior year (2019: €4,643 million).

The year-on-year decrease in the BASF Group’s EBIT before special items was primarily due to the considerably lower earnings contributions from the Chemicals, Surface Technologies, Materials and Agricultural Solutions segments.

The BASF Group’s EBIT amounted to an expected €932 million in the fourth quarter of 2020, above the figure for the prior-year quarter (Q4 2019: €579 million) and above analyst consensus. In the full year 2020, EBIT declined to –€191 million (2019: €4,201 million), mainly due to the non-cash-effective impairments and provisions for restructuring in the third quarter of 2020, but was better than expected by analysts on average.