Significantly weaker-than-expected industrial production negatively impacted volumes and margin development at BASF. At around 1.5% according to current estimates, growth in industrial production in the first half of 2019 was much slower than expected. The downturn in growth in the global automotive industry was particularly strong: Globally, production declined by around 6% in the first half of 2019. In China, the world’s largest automotive market, the decrease was more than twice as high, at...