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BASF Retains World’s Most Valuable Chemicals Brand Title: Brand Finance

Brand value grew 11 percent to $8.3 billion.

02.06.19

BASF's brand value grew 11 percent to $8.3 billion, making it the world's most valuable chemicals brand, according to a report by Brand Finance.

BASF’s brand value was boosted by the unveiling of a new strategy which included ambitious new targets, more focus on organic growth and greater emphasis on expansion in Asia, notably across China, the report states.

BASF has been recognized within the industry for its corporate climate action and water security efforts. The company has also launched an initiative to make BASF Carbon Dioxide neutral by 2030 and to keep its “greenhouse” gases flat between 2018 and 2030, whilst also launching innovative climate-friendly chemical production methods. The brand is pioneering revolutionary new technology and digitalizing its chemical plants, such as its 600,000 networked sensors which are being used at its main production facility in Ludwigshafen on the Rhine.

“BASF’s brand, which has a powerful track record over a number of years, could come under real pressure from the combined DowDuPont merger, which brings two compelling brands under one umbrella," Brand Finance CEO David Haigh said. "The modernizing of chemical plants are now more crucial than ever as brands compete to update their production facility processes and also ensure that all work in research and development is underpinned by digital solutions.”

  While BASF is the leading chemicals company by brand value, the new DowDupont organization still operates under the Dow and DuPont brands, despite the new company being split into three new entities, the combination of the two brands – $6.8 billion and $3.3 billion respectively – exceeds BASF’s $8.3 billion.

Over the past year, DuPont has seen its brand value increase by 21 percent, the third highest rate of growth across the sector.

World's Most Valuable Chemicals Brands, 2019

2019 Rank	2018 Rank	Brand name	Country	Brand Value 2019 (USD billon)	Brand Value 2018 (USD billion)	Brand Value Change (%)	2019 Brand Strength Rating	2018 Brand Strength Rating
1	1	BASF	Germany	8,253	7,449	11%	AAA-	AAA-
2	2	Dow	United States	6,819	6,544	4%	AAA	AAA-
3	3	SABIC	Saudi Arabia	3,964	3,722	6%	AA+	AA+
4	5	LG Chem	South Korea	3,338	2,421	38%	AA	AA
5	4	DuPont	United States	3,261	2,685	21%	AAA-	AAA-
6	New	LyondellBasell	United States	3,073	2,324	32%	AA-	AA-
7	6	Air Liquide	France	2,594	2,347	10%	AA	AA
8	8	Mitsubishi Chemical	Japan	2,535	2,259	12%	AA-	AA-
9	New	Praxair	United States	2,307	2,015	14%	AA+	AA+
10	7	Asahi Kasei Corp	Japan	2,246	2,345	-4%	A+	AA-

A new entrant to the Brand Finance Chemicals 10 ranking last year, Saudi Arabian petrochemicals company SABIC saw 6.5 percent brand value growth, reaching $4 billion.

South Korea’s LG Chem brand grew faster than any other chemicals brand; its brand value grew 38 percent to $3.3 billion.

LyondellBasell upped its brand value 32 percent to $3.1 billion.

Aside from determining overall brand value, Brand Finance also evaluates the relative strength of brands through a balanced scorecard of metrics on marketing investment, stakeholder equity, and business performance. Along with the level of revenues, brand strength is a crucial driver of brand value.

According to these criteria, DowDuPont is the world’s strongest chemicals brand with a Brand Strength Index score of 84.8 out of 100 and a corresponding AAA brand rating, making Dow the first chemicals company to achieve a AAA rating.

Behind Dow, DuPont is unchanged at 82.3 out of 100 and BASF (81.55 out of 100) is in the third position.