DMC today small up domestic market stalemate European energy crisis or affect the European silicone production

Demand is severely depressed, transportation is disrupted and export orders are falling. But foreign demand has not decreased, it is understood that the current foreign demand for silicone is still in the period of growth, but foreign production has not increased in the past two years, and some production capacity has been stopped and withdrawn. Capacity growth mainly comes from domestic, European energy prices have risen in the past two years, and commodity prices have risen sharply. Recently, with the European sanctions against Russia, the European energy supply is in great uncertainty. Europe is an important production base of silicone in the world. International giants Dow, Wacker and Elkem all have large production bases in Europe, especially Wacker Chemical, whose main production base is located in Germany. If energy supply problems occur in Europe, their production may be seriously affected.  

Limiting or cutting energy imports from Russia would threaten the survival of Germany's small and medium-sized energy companies and could plunge the country into its most "catastrophic" economic crisis since the end of the second world war, the chief executive of BASF SE, the world's largest chemicals company, has warned. Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday signed a decree ordering "unfriendly countries" to buy energy from Russia in rubles or face power cuts. The decree leaves Europe facing the possibility of losing more than a third of its gas supplies. Germany, which relies most heavily on Russian gas, has launched an emergency plan that could lead to rationing in Europe's largest economy.  

While "Germany is likely to wean itself off Russian gas in four to five years," Mr. Brudmuller said, "LNG imports are still not growing fast enough to replace all Russian gas supplies in the near term."  

"Given that Russia accounts for 55 per cent of German gas consumption, it is not enough for all of us to turn our heating down by two degrees now," he said. He stressed that if Russian gas disappeared overnight, "a lot of things would collapse" because "we would have high unemployment and a lot of companies would go bankrupt. This will cause irreversible damage."  

"To put it bluntly: this could plunge the German economy into its worst crisis since the end of the Second World War and undermine our prosperity. For many small and medium-sized businesses in particular, this could spell doom. We can't risk it!"  

Asked what would happen if Mr Putin's demand for payment in rubles led to an immediate cut in gas supplies, Mr Brudmuller replied: "If we don't get more Russian gas for a long time, Germany will have a real problem. At BASF, if the gas supply falls significantly, permanently below 50 percent of our maximum demand, we will have to scale back or completely close production at our largest plant in Ludwigshafen."