BASF SE

It takes a couple of years before we see the realization of it.

But we are continuing to see in CEOs and across the earnings reports, in fact, BASF CEO Marcus Kemp acknowledged China's anti-involution measures during his earnings call, the BASF earnings call, and yet said there is no quick fix on this.

So I think we know that.

We can make policy decisions.

Partnering has always been a key element of strategic business success across the industry.

What are we seeing in Q3 and what are those results come? Well, one of the ones that, you know, the fresh ones, if you will, was data.

BASF and Evonik, which by the way, there is no defined partnership there, but BASF has made repeated approaches to Evonik openly, really saying that they see that partnership and that combination of businesses being successful.

Evonik doesn't see it the same way.

And this is one of the largest PFAS personal injury settlements that we've seen.

And we could see others coming down the road from DuPont and BASF.

Okay, well, let's end today's session with a packaging story and one that comes from the world's largest archipelagic nation.

That's right.

Factor was that within the German Federation of Industry starting in 2016 already ten years ago There was an incipient conversation over that that was first made public in 2019 and then other industrial associations followed suit most recently the machine tool industry the engineering industry this industry is 99 percent small to medium size and So they are the typical representatives of that perspective.

Unfortunately, German politicians, including a long list of chancellors, would always listen more to the big MNCs, to the Volkswagen and Mercedes and Siemens and BASF, than to the SME.

Why?

Well, a big corporation can't afford to do a lot of lobbying.

I have advocated to China discuss what a trade policy that takes the concerns of small and medium-sized companies would imply, to discuss that, instead of just doing favors to Volkswagen whenever they pick up the phone and call the chancellery.

That would imply a completely different trade policy, a completely different China policy.

And the fact that this backbone of German industry, and even though BASF is more visible than many of the small companies, the backbone is still the SME.

that they come under pressure.

I'd work it out, blah, blah.

I took it away on a cassette, on a BASF cassette, which I've still got up there somewhere.

and took it away, gave it to my uncle, and he wrote out the notes in pencil on manuscript paper, which I've actually still got up there.

I won't look for it now, but I actually do have it up there.

And it was a rehearsal space and someone brought an R, a Fostex R8 or something, reel-to-reel, and we recorded it.

And it went onto a DAT or DAT tape, which you shouldn't really say because you're saying T twice, but anyway.

And I had that and then we put it onto a BASF chrome tape, which I've still got the original cassette somewhere up there in my cassettes.

But it was played in all my cars and it was all got mangled and there's a little bit that went a bit underwater, you know, when the tapes go underwater.

Now, you know, developing cotton to have the ability to withstand those older chemistries.

And I'm referring to, or at least I'm thinking of, you know, BASF's Accent Flex cotton system where, you know, an opportunity to use a very unique chemistry for cotton, but it's not a new active ingredient.

you know the isoxyflutol piece which is is balance or balance flex and then the the topramazone piece which is armazon in in corn so so we likely will see those opportunities kind of like what we saw you know with with the 240s and the dicampus and liberties and roundups and one thing i have to say you forgot about bxn when you made your comment earlier And you said that those traits are still within the germplasm.

That would probably be the one exception because, you know, the VXN that came out, really the first transgenic herbicide in cotton, didn't last very long because that little Roundup Ready technology came shortly thereafter.