It is urgently necessary to "take further decisive measures to improve our competitiveness" there, explained CEO Martin Brudermüller on Friday when presenting the annual results. An additional savings program is to ensure annual cost reductions of one billion euros by the end of 2026. This also involves further job cuts, the details of which are currently being worked on.

A year ago, Brudermüller had already announced a new cost-cutting program to make the Group weatherproof. It will result in the loss of 2600 jobs worldwide, almost two thirds of them in Germany. Several energy-intensive facilities at the main plant in Ludwigshafen are to be closed.

(Report by Patricia Weiß; edited by Sabine Wollrab. If you have any queries, please contact our editorial team at berlin.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for politics and the economy) or frankfurt.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for companies and markets).)