At present, market demand is severely suppressed, transportation is blocked, and export orders are reduced. However, foreign demand has not decreased. It is understood that at present, foreign demand for silicone is still in a period of growth, but there has been no increase in production abroad in the past two years, and some production capacity has been shut down and withdrawn. The production capacity growth mainly comes from domestic. In the past two years, European energy prices have soared and commodity prices have risen sharply. Recently, with the European sanctions against Russia, the European energy supply has fallen into great uncertainty. Europe is an important production base of silicone in the world. International giants Dow, Wacker and Eken all have large production bases in Europe, especially Wacker chemical. Its main production base is located in Germany. If there is a problem in European energy supply, its production may be seriously affected.


Recently, the CEO of BASF se, the world's largest chemical company and German chemical giant, warned that restricting or cutting off energy imports from Russia would threaten the survival of small and medium-sized energy enterprises in Germany and could plunge Germany into the most "disastrous" economic crisis since the end of World War II. Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on Thursday asking "unfriendly countries" to buy energy from Russia in rubles, otherwise they will be forced to cut off power supply. This decree will expose Europe to the possibility of losing more than a third of its natural gas supply. Germany, which relies most heavily on Russian gas, has launched an emergency plan that could lead to quantitative rationing in Europe's largest economy.

Brudmuller believes that although "Germany may get rid of its dependence on Russian natural gas in four to five years", the "growth rate of LNG imports is still not enough to replace all Russian natural gas supplies in the short term."

Considering that Russia accounts for 55% of Germany's natural gas consumption, it is not enough for all of us to reduce the heating temperature by 2 degrees now," he said. He stressed that if Russian gas disappears overnight, "a lot of things will collapse", because "we will face high unemployment and many companies will go bankrupt. This will lead to irreversible damage."


"Bluntly: this may plunge the German economy into the worst crisis since the end of World War II and undermine our prosperity. Especially for many small and medium-sized enterprises, this may mean the end. We can't take this risk!"


When asked what would happen if Putin's demand for payment in rubles led to an immediate interruption of natural gas supply, "If we don't get more Russian gas for a long time, there will be a real problem in Germany. In BASF, if the gas supply drops sharply and is permanently below 50% of our maximum demand, we will have to reduce or completely close the production of the largest plant in Ludwigshafen," brudmuller replied