BASF is a major supplier to the global auto industry, making coatings, plastics, catalysts, battery materials and other chemicals used by carmakers and their suppliers. Shortages of basic inputs could raise the risk of assembly-line stoppages in an industry that depends on thousands of components from multiple sources.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s a downside risk that I can see for the second half of this year,\u201d Kamieth said. \u201cThere is this creeping risk that at some point a material won\u2019t be available.\u201d<\/p>\n
The comments highlight the challenge facing policymakers and companies as they try to gauge the fallout from the Middle East war. Purchasing teams at Volkswagen AG, Mercedes-Benz Group AG and other automakers are trying to mitigate the impact, but disruptions can be difficult to detect when they begin far upstream in chemicals, metals or other basic materials.<\/p>\n
Ludwigshafen, Germany-based BASF, one of the world\u2019s largest chemical companies, operates sites across the globe, making it relatively sensitive to geopolitical shocks. Its European plants are tied closely to the region\u2019s automotive supply chains, while the company has also recently opened a major new production complex in China.<\/p>\n
Kamieth said he doesn\u2019t believe China or the U.S. want to trigger a conflict over Taiwan, and that a complete Western decoupling from China would be impossible even in the event of a confrontation over the disputed territory.<\/p>\n
Bloomberg Economics estimated this week that a war over Taiwan would cost the world economy about $10 trillion, or roughly 8% of global GDP.<\/p>\n
\u201cSanctions would come, countermeasures would come,\u201d Kamieth said, while pushing back on comparisons with Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine and the response of western economies with financial countermeasures. \u201cRussia is economically a mini-mini effect compared to China,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Top photo: Markus Kamieth Photographer: Gilles Sabri\u00e9\/Bloomberg.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 Bloomberg.<\/p>\n
![\"newsletter\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/subscribe-background-580x250.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Want to stay up to date?<\/p>\n
Get the latest insurance news
sent straight to your inbox.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BASF SE Chief Executive Officer Markus Kamieth said rising inflation and the risk of supply-chain disruption from the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":33063,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21106],"tags":[24451,20305,1333,31091],"class_list":["post-33062","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basf","tag-auto","tag-basf","tag-iran-war","tag-supply-chain-disruption"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33062","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33062"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33062\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33063"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33062"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}