In the specialty chemical compounds group Lanxess, each plant supervisor now is aware of what to do if a gas embargo happens. “I hope it does not come to that, as a result of it is going to paralyze whole worth chains,” stated CEO Matthias Zachert in a convention name on Thursday. On this case, Lanxess is the primary firm to estimate particular costs, a minimum of for its personal manufacturing. The direct impact could be 80 to 120 million euros for the working outcome earlier than curiosity, taxes, depreciation and amortization (Ebitda). The oblique results in business resulting from a lack of preliminary merchandise and later in items for finish clients can’t be calculated. “If we stand, the business will stand,” stated Zachert. Ultimately, the costs are considerably larger.
Lanxess makes use of gas and coal to generate electrical energy and, extra importantly, steam to fabricate its chemical merchandise. Within the projection, the corporate calculated the demand and found the most important affect on the websites within the chemical parks in Leverkusen, Krefeld and Dormagen. If gas solely got here from the Netherlands and Norway, the corporate must scale back gas consumption by as much as 50 p.c – which might before everything shut down the gas-intensive operations. All others would even be throttled.
“By no means skilled in my profession”
Within the first quarter, Lanxess elevated its costs by 31 p.c resulting from elevated power costs at group stage. “I’ve by no means skilled that in my profession,” stated Zachert. Nonetheless, there’s nonetheless no signal of a weakening in demand, additionally as a result of there are nonetheless catch-up results because of the Corona disaster. If power costs remained on the similar stage, they might value the Cologne M-Dax group 1 billion euros for the 12 months, twice as a lot as within the earlier 12 months.
Lanxess nonetheless has coal-fired energy crops in operation in Leverkusen and Krefeld, however Zachert needs to stay to the exit plan with the intention to obtain its personal local weather objectives. The Lanxess boss expressed respect for the Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck (Greens) for making an attempt to scale back dependence on Russia. Nonetheless, Zachert criticized that power coverage had been dealt with “amateurishly” within the final 15 years. “If I did that, I must be kicked out of the job.”
