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BASF announces "permanent" downsizing and shuttering of its European chemical operations, affecting fertilizer, polymers and more

By ethanh // 2022-10-28

The largest producer of chemicals, including crop and agriculture chemicals, is permanently downsizing in Europe amid an ongoing and ever-worsening energy crisis. BASF, which had already cut fertilizer production in Germany back in July due to exceptionally high fuel costs, now says more cuts are necessary to keep the company afloat. "The European chemical market has been growing only weakly for about a decade [and] the significant increase in natural gas and power prices over the course of this year is putting pressure on chemical value chains," announced CEO Martin Brudermüller about the decision. Regionally speaking, BASF can no longer compete due to energy costs that have skyrocketed to record highs. Companies with a presence in countries where energy remains cheap and plentiful now have a major competitive advantage against BASF, in other words. During the first nine months of 2022, BASF reportedly spent €2.2 billion more than usual on natural gas to keep its production facilities intact. Those facilities produce not just fertilizers but also polymers, glues and other petrochemical-based materials. In addition to hyperinflating energy prices, the European Union (EU), of which Germany is a member, is also imposing strict anti-fossil fuel restrictions that are rendering it next to impossible for companies like BASF to remain in business. To combat this, Brudermüller says BASF has no choice but to cut costs throughout the region "as quickly as possible and also permanently."

As BASF pulls out of Europe, company expands into communist China

All is not lost for BASF, though. Like many other multinational corporations, the company is massively expanding its operations in communist China even as it pulls out of the European market somewhat. We are told that BASF invested in a €10 billion complex in China that will supposedly be run entirely on "renewable energy." The facility is to be located in Zhanjiang, located in southern China. The Asian markets are booming and welcoming all this new business while the European and Western markets are teetering on the brink. Is this just a coincidence, or was this all planned as part of the "Great Reset?" BASF's expansion into China is coming under fire, not the least of which because the communist trading partner is notorious for its authoritarian structure of government. Money speaks louder than morals, though. In fact, morals play almost no role at all in any of the decisions being made at the corporate level, whether at BASF or at one of its competitors. "We have a very, very profitable China business," Brudermüller bragged ahead of a meeting with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. "Half of the world market is there. What kind of risk does a company run into if it renounces half of the market?"

"Green" energy is about dismantling the West

In case you have not figured it out yet, the obvious goal with all these "crisis" and their associated "green" push is to deindustrialize the West and move all production, assets and resources into China and other Asian countries. From there, business will churn out cheap products at cheap prices while the West becomes increasingly more economically non-viable. It is a plan that has been in the works for some time now, and we are witnessing it all occur right before our very eyes. The energy crisis is just the latest cover story for something that was already in motion all along. Communist China started stealing many American companies' manufacturing facilities beginning in the 1970s and 1980s, and since that time the Chicoms have been gobbling up entire U.S. companies and industry sectors. Now, the Far East's "green" energy scams are cleaning up what little remains of the industrialized West, all under the guise of Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the associated energy crisis. "'As they downsize in Europe, they're expanding in China.' Almost as if China is behind the green movement and the push for ending fossil fuels in the West," one commenter wrote. "And as China builds massive amounts of nuclear plants," added another. "And Biden ships them oil from our reserves," interjected yet another. Fossil fuels also allow for too much freedom, which is frowned upon in China and other countries where populations are heavily controlled by their extremely authoritarian government structures. "They need to keep everyone limited in what they can do so that everything has to cross the ocean a couple times and they get their taste each time," added another commenter. "And they also control the process so they can play their games. They can stop the supply chain once it is that vulnerable. They can also restore it with ease because there is an overproduction under normal circumstances." Someone else added further than China is building hundreds of new coal plants as well, "almost like they know climate change is a hoax." Interested in keeping up with the latest news about the energy crisis? You can do so at Collapse.news. Sources for this article include: TheGatewayPundit.com NaturalNews.com

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