The German chemicals company BASF has said it will cut 2,600 jobs, as Europe’s largest economy braces for recession triggered by the energy crisis that intensified after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. It paid additional energy costs of €3.2 billion ($3.4 billion) globally during 2022, according to The Guardian.

BASF is the world’s largest chemicals group and one of the mainstays of German industry, producing chemicals used to make countless products across the world, ranging from fertilizers to plastics, cars and pharmaceuticals.

However, it has been particularly affected by its dependence on gas piped from Russia. It said it will close one of two ammonia plants, and two plants for plastic chemicals, as well as shift some production away from Germany.

Germany’s economy has faltered because of the crisis. German GDP fell by 0.4% in the final three months of 2022, according to data published February 24 by the country’s Federal Statistics Office.

Martin Brudermüller, the BASF chief executive, in April 2022 suggested that moving from Russian gas could “destroy our entire economy.”

“It is a fact that Russian gas supplies have so far been the basis for our industry’s competitiveness,” he said, in an interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.