Germany news: BASF opens massive factory in China

German consumer confidence has fallen yet again as a weak economic recovery, rising energy prices and inflation — all of which have been compounded by wars in Ukraine and now Iran — collide.

That fading consumer confidence mirrors the dim economic prospects given to Germany by analysts who put overall growth expectations at their lowest rate since March 2022.  

Already suffering from disruptions brought on by Russian President Vladimir Putin's ongoing invasion of Ukraine, economic experts say the US-Israeli war against Iran could bring growth to a halt.

"In February, ​we were ‌still thinking about raising our 2026 forecast because the signals were becoming increasingly positive," said Sebastian Dullien, director of Germany's Macroeconomic Policy Institute (IMK). "The economic effects of the war are now ‌at ​least partly spoiling that and, in the worst case, could intensify the risk of deindustrialisation in Germany." 

Consumer confidence as documented by a new forward-looking survey conducted by the GfK polling institute and the Nuremberg Institute for Market Decisions (NIM) tracked a decline of 3.2 points in March — dragging consumer confidence to -28 points overall heading into April.

Pollsters say they saw little change in consumer saving and spending habits but noted respondents' concerns about rising inflation and weak economic performance overall.

Among the many concerns Germans have for the economy, one of the biggest remains price spikes resulting from ever-higher energy costs. These have of course been compounded by the Iran war and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

On Wednesday, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said the best way to boost the economy would be "to end the war in Iran."

Rescuers are trying a new approach in their bid to free a humpback whale stranded on Germany's Baltic Sea coast. 

A large suction dredger is being used to remove sand from around the animal, which has been stuck in shallow waters at the Timmendorfer Strand beach since early on Monday. 

Two excavators, one of which is on a mobile floating platform and can operate at sea, were digging a trench in an attempt to free the 12-to-15-meter-long marine mammal. 

The aim is to dig a 50-meter long, 6-meter wide and 1.2-meter deep trench in a path ahead of the whale to ease its way out. 

Mayor Sven Partheil-Höhnke said that the excavators were approaching the trapped creature slowly, in hopes that it would start to become acclimatized to the noise. He said that wind and currents would also pose a challenge for the operation. 

Before the rescue efforts began, marine biologist Robert Marc Lehmann waded out and approached the stranded animal to check on it. The diver's assessment found the animal to be in relatively good condition, according to Stephanie Gross from the Institute for Terrestrial and Aquatic Wildlife Research (ITAW). 

Even if the efforts to free the animal succeed, it will still need to find its way out of the Baltic Sea and back into North Sea and then the Atlantic Ocean, navigating a natural bottleneck of shallower waters. 

"It has to find the way out again, and it is not entirely certain that the humpback whales' navigation system is designed for that," vet and whale expert Jan Herrmann told the DPA news agency. 

Germany's top civil and criminal court has ruled that advertisements for medical marijuana as a form of treatment are not permitted. 

The court found that such adverts would constitute a breach of a ban on advertising any form of medication that requires a prescription directly to patients. 

The presiding judge at the Federal Court of Justice (the Bundesgerichtshof or BGH) said that it did not matter whether the advert in question mentioned a specific product or producer and that any advertisement of prescription medication was not permitted. 

The Bloomwell Group company based in Frankfurt had taken the challenge to the highest court, arguing that it did not perceive its advert as the specific endorsement of a given product, but rather as a bid to raise public awareness about a type of potential treatment. 

A German competition watchdog, the Wettbewerbszentrale, had challenged the proposal as a breach of the prescription advertisement rules, and it welcomed Thursday's decision. 

"The rules on prescriptions serve a protective purpose," the group said in a statement. 

Bloomwell CEO Niklas Kouparanis meanwhile said he believed the decision infringed on consumers' rights to information, given the limitations on what can be published pertaining to medicinal marijuana. Nevertheless he welcomed the clarity the decision provided.

Medical professionals in Germany have been allowed to prescribe medicinal marijuana in some cases since 2017. This is separate to the partial legalization of cannabis for recreational use instituted in recent years.

Interior Ministry data released on Thursday after an inquiry from a lawmaker shows that just 35% of asylum applications by Iranian nationals processed by the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) in January and February of this year were successful. 

This data excludes applications that were rejected for procedural reasons, such as responsibility for the asylum claim lying with another EU member state. 

The period in question pre-dates the US-Israeli attacks on Iran launched on February 28, with March's data still incomplete, but nevertheless coincided with a major crackdown on public protests by the regime in Tehran. 

Clara Bünger, the Left Party politician who filed the information request, told the DPA news agency that the figures were evidence that the BAMF was too strict in its decisions on Iranian applications. 

"Even 61% of female asylum seekers from Iran are rejected, despite the misogynistic regime and systematically discriminatory laws," Bünger said. "Solidarity with the people of Iran looks different." 

She called on Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt to recalibrate the decision-making process where Iranian applications were concerned. 

The ministry's figures also showed a relatively high success rate for Iranians appealing their asylum verdicts. In 2025, more than one in three rejected asylum seekers successfully appealed the verdict.

The lower house of parliament, the Bundestag, has approved a hurried bill aiming to prevent filling stations from price gouging amid the unstable oil prices during the war in Iran and the wider Gulf. 

The law will in future limit gas or petrol station operators to just one price increase per day. There will be no limit on how often they can reduce the price. 

The package still requires approval from the upper house, the Bundesrat, with a vote expected on Friday. 

Critics warn that the measure does nothing to limit how much filling stations can charge, or to peg their changes to developments in oil prices, it only prevents them from repeatedly changing prices throughout the day. 

The law is an attempt to respond to what the Federal Cartel Agency described as the "rocket and feather" phenomenon, whereby gas stations respond to rising oil prices like a rocket taking off, but react to falling prices more like a feather floating back down to the ground. 

Businesses found in breach could face fines of up to €100,000 (roughly $115,000) based on the current draft law.

According to the ADAC motorists' club on Thursday, the average cost of a liter of diesel nationwide had cleared €2.28, while the cheapest variant of petroleum or gasoline stood at €2.07 per liter. That equates to roughly $8.60 for a US gallon of diesel, or $7.83 for gasoline.

A month ago, prior to the attacks on Iran, both prices were lower than €1.80 per liter.

Germany's BASF, the world's largest chemical producer, on Thursday opened a brand new €8.7 billion ($10 billion) production complex in Zhanjiang, China, in what is the company's biggest ever investment.

The move is controversial on two fronts.

First, it comes as the company outsources German jobs to India and China. Secondly, it raises concerns about supporting China's Communist Party at a time when Berlin urges companies to "de-risk."

At home, BASF has enacted rigorous cost-cutting measures, resulting in firings in Ludwigshafen, where the company is headquartered, as well as its Berlin offices. BASF has long contended that expanding in China, the world's biggest chemical market, is necessary for its future profitability.

The new facility in southern Guandong province brings together numerous chemical producing units and covers an area of roughly four square kilometers (1.5 square miles).

Speaking with Germany's financial daily Handelsblatt this week, BASF CEO Markus Kamieth said, "China remains the market offering the greatest growth for our industry."

"The strong focus on new industries, renewables, and the green transition is a huge opportunity for an innovative chemical company like BASF."

Germany's chemicals industry has struggled to remain competitive alongside China, with BASF citing high energy and labor costs as well as regulatory burdens as the big reasons for this.

Moreover, the move is controversial in that BASF's investment comes at a time when Berlin has urged companies to "de-risk" through diversification.

Thus far, German companies — such as VW, for instance — have tended to choose potential short-term profit opportunity in China over concern about Chinese business practices and the Communist-led economy.

Beyond far more lax environmental rules, labor laws in China help big companies' bottom lines as well.

The situation is not without risk however. 

Last year BASF bailed out of two joint ventures in Xinjiang region after its local partner was accused of engaging in rights abuses against local Uyghurs.

BASF says more than 2,000 people are employed at the Zhanjiang site.

They will produce a range of chemicals for sectors ranging from transport to consumer goods and electronics, with most products manufactured at the site intended for the Chinese market.

Zhanjiang is BASF's third-biggest complex worldwide, after Ludwigshafen and Antwerp, Belgium.

Boris Pistorius said during a visit to Australia on Thursday that Germany was ready to help broker a ceasefire in the Iran war. 

"This was is a catastrophe for the world's economies. The effects are already clear after just a little more than two weeks," Pisotirus said in Canberra alongside his fellow Defense Minister Richard Marles. 

Pistorius was that a diplomatic solution was needed "as quickly as possible." He said this message was directed primarily at Iran but also at the US, and reiterated that Germany was only ready to help bring the fighting to an end, not join in. 

"We were not consulted beforehand. It is not our war, and, therefore, we don't want to get sucked into this war, to make this crystal clear," he said. 

For all the latest on Pistorius' comments and developments in Iran and the Gulf, you can check on our live updates here.

Guten Tag from the DW Newsroom in Bonn. Before we get running with today's blog, here, an overview of topics covered yesterday:

• German business confidence dropped in March as a result of the Iran war
• Chancellor Friedrich Merz said the 'best way to combat high prices is to end the war in Iran'
• A Berlin court jailed four members of the Islamist terror group Hamas who were operating and planning possible attacks in Europe
• Along with food and gas prices, German housing prices also rose again in 2025
• In Berlin, Greenpeace staged a climate protest to criticize fossil fuel dependence over green alternatives

Stay tuned to DW for the latest news on Thursday, March 26, 2026