BASF Brings Recyclable Packaging to Düsseldorf as US Job Cuts Bite

BASF unveils recyclable packaging with UPM at interpack, while cutting 100 jobs in Alabama and warning of overly optimistic growth forecasts.

BASF has arrived at the interpack trade fair in Düsseldorf with a sustainability pitch and a restructuring headache. The German chemicals giant is showcasing a new partnership with Finnish papermaker UPM Specialty Materials, even as it sheds 100 jobs at its McIntosh site in Alabama and warns that its full-year forecasts may have been built on overly rosy assumptions about global growth.

The centrepiece of BASF’s presence at the fair, which opened today and runs until 13 May, is a collaboration that marries UPM’s barrier papers with BASF’s water-based Joncryl HPB polymer coatings. The result is a range of fibre-based packaging materials designed for food and non-food applications that both companies are marketing as a “design-for-recycling” concept. The aim is to replace conventional mixed-material packaging that is notoriously difficult to recycle.

Brussels is providing the tailwind. The EU’s Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (EU 2025/40) takes effect in August 2026, forcing manufacturers to rethink packaging design and recyclability. For BASF, the regulatory pressure is less a threat than a selling point. The jointly developed samples on display in Hall 10 are intended to demonstrate that performance and sustainability need not be trade-offs, with options for both organic and mechanical recycling.

Alongside the UPM tie-up, BASF is showing off a broader suite of material innovations at interpack. These include Ultramid Ccycled, a polyamide for food packaging, and Ultramid H, billed as the first thermoplastic polyamide with high water permeability. The company has also expanded its certified compostable ecovio portfolio with new grades for flexible barrier packaging, giving manufacturers more flexibility on end-of-life solutions. The target industries span food, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and industrial goods.

Yet the trade-fair optimism sits uncomfortably alongside the cost-cutting underway elsewhere in the group. At the McIntosh site in Alabama, around 100 of the roughly 200 positions are being eliminated. Several production lines will be shut down by the end of the first quarter of 2027, though granulation activities and site infrastructure will remain. BASF cited rising costs and persistent industry headwinds as the reasons.

The job cuts are part of a broader corporate overhaul that has seen chief executive Kamieth move to sharpen the group’s focus around its integrated production Verbund. The agricultural solutions division is being carved out as a standalone European stock corporation, while the company targets annual cost savings of around €2.3 billion by the end of 2026. By June, BASF aims to hit the first milestone of its multi-billion-euro shareholder return programme.

For now, the management is standing by its full-year guidance. Adjusted EBITDA is expected to come in between €6.2 billion and €7.0 billion in 2026. But the board has acknowledged that the assumptions on global economic growth baked into the February forecast may have been too optimistic. Between 2025 and 2028, BASF plans to distribute at least €12 billion to shareholders through dividends and share buybacks.

The market has yet to fully price in the transformation. BASF shares were recently trading at €52.45, up roughly 17 percent since the start of the year but nearly 4 percent below their 52-week high of €54.70. The relative strength index of 72.7 points to a technically overbought condition. The stock also sits about 6 percent below its April peak of around €51, though it remains more than 14 percent higher year-to-date.

Whether the interpack momentum can help close the gap to the year’s high will depend in part on how investors weigh the cautious language around the earnings outlook against the operational progress on display in Düsseldorf. For a company in the midst of a deep strategic reset, the next few weeks will test whether the narrative of transformation can keep pace with the reality of restructuring.