(ICIS) -- German major BASF faces volume growth pressure and declining petrochemical margins in 2012 because of deteriorating economic conditions, Bernstein Research said on Thursday. Based on this outlook, Bernstein downgraded the company to ⌠market-perform from ⌠outperform and dropped its target share price to EUR 56 (USD 80) from EUR 74.
BASF's chemicals ⌠Verbund part of its business - chemicals, plastics, performance products and functional solutions - will be most at risk, the analysts said.
⌠We believe that chemicals Verbund' volume growth and petrochemicals margins, which were key reasons for our outperform rating, will come under pressure in 2012 due to deteriorating economic conditions, Bernstein said in its research note.