the connection between bread. and european. correspondent and the baker. about the recipes for success strategies that make a difference. taking bread. d.w. . down at germany's b.s.f. the world's biggest maker of chemicals we talked to vs ev's chief executive. how he plans to navigate the giant through rough geopolitical waters. and more trouble for another german chemicals giant by. the u.s. over claims that it's weak dangerous will it open the floodgates for huge class

action lawsuits. this is the business of. germany's global chemical company b.s.f. says annual operating profits plummeted by seventeen percent to six point four billion euros last year lowering expectations at the end of last year the scale of the drop still surprised analysts b.s.f. a struggling with a wide variety of issues including logistical problems due to lower water levels on the rhine river last summer one of its main plane plants is located the company is also caught between the u.s. and china trade dispute with the car industry accounting for a fifth of b.s.s. business the company has announced a major restructuring program to save money and expects better results this year. well we shall see how that goes because now joined by a man whose job satisfaction probably took a bit of a hit today in boredom and has been at the helm of beers of since may most of

whatever will come to drop your business you said you wanted when you started in the job you want to increase profit by three to five percent instead operating profits dropped seventeen percent on your watch the share price is down once since you took over that's a bit of a slow start isn't it well that was certainly not planned like this but the world economy economy is significantly slowed in the second half of the year for taking the last quarter was a difficult one because the demand from china and automotive industry globally what's going down this is why we had to adapt our earnings expectation however i think what is important in our in two thousand and nineteen the trivia transition year for b s f that we develop the company further to our customers we have so many strings which we can use to attract customers and this is also boost our organic growth and this is what the strategy is about the car industry talk about growth is

one of your most important customers according to my commission roughly twenty percent of your sales your business come from that sector do you feel the trade war and what's your personal outlook on that. well overall i think indeed the cost of the automotive industry is our largest customer industry this is also a very innovative industry so we feel if the automotive industry is slowing down this is a complex make sure between i think of it effect in the moment there's also the approval situation in germany but there's also a slowdown in other regions however it is an innovative industry and certainly also the trade frictions between the u.s. and china is also impacting the automotive industry so it will be very essential for the overall two thousand and nine hundred climate that we see a resolution at least some easing in the rate conflicts between china and the u.s. however i think it is far beyond only the traits between the two nations talking

about china donald trump the americans accused way of facilitating chinese espionage you have your own experience with six of your employees in taiwan a currently facing accusations of spying for a chinese company what's your take on that can't we trust the chinese but first of all we have very good experience in china we have. lots joint venture of the sinopec for some fifteen years and we have moved our new latest technologies at that time to china we have made good experience we did not see any theft of ip the pod what you are talking about is one employer ye that was doing wrong. and i think this cannot be associated now with china because that is wrongdoing off the wall of the other individuals you can see all over the verdun a big organization you know well he was we was trying to sell information to chinese companies not rod. well please understand that i cannot make many

comments in an investigation it is still running this the police in thailand ok i understand that to another field of geopolitics that you are exposed to inevitably by a subsidiary owns a quarter of north stream that's the gas pipeline to russia it's been quite controversial especially there was criticism from the us. would you agree when people say that germany will be in russian's pocket with that. i don't think so first of all we have very good experience in our model to do kate partnership discussed from gospel has been always a very reliable partner also reacting very quickly on diem on increase in germany for example in cold winter and i think it is very essential for europe that we have as much gas as we can get to meet competitive pricing and this means men there is more offering that will be positive for the pricing and i think if you move forward so towards a more sustainable development in europe there is one one thing we have to do in

this is replacing four other forsythe fuels by gas so i think there's a more very strong strategic interest of europe and germany to have more gas offering into germany and i think not stream two will make a significant contribution to this. your competitive buyer is currently legal trouble making the headlines over glad to say which has run out of its patent protection and you sell it as well as we do you expect similar lawsuits if you feel similar. against. the evidence because if it's not exposed to life for say it saves we have only a very very small part which is in the industrial sector of business we are not related to this issue so this is not been part of stealing in chemical industry. must implement ahead of c.e.o. of this thank you very much for talking to us today thank you.

is the popular weed killer round up dangerous for humans with just mentioned and that's the question a judge in san francisco wants answered in the first federal trial against the controversial life say the man in california says his non-hostile foma stems from using round up for twenty five years for the case is being argued in federal court in san francisco and it is only the first off what could be many federal trials the attorney for seventy year old edwin hart i'm on a frequent user of round up in a start and says it's high time for monsanto to pay up. this company needs to get straight and to be honest with us and with its customers and say listen there's evidence that associate with cancer and get let people make a choice about whether or not they use a product this case is about failure to work and the simple fact is they haven't worn and they're going to keep being sued until they do there was an initial victory for buyer the german chemical giant that has owned monsanto since

a sixty six billion dollars takeover last year the judge rejected the plaintiffs allegation that monsanto paid for by a scientific research and excerpted undue influence on government regulators in a previous case in state court last year monsanto was ordered to pay seventy eight million dollars restitution to another plaintiffs in total almost ten thousand cases have been prepared by farmers gardeners and landscapers depending on the outcome of this federal trial they could cost buyer billions of dollars. well let's talk to financial correspondent susan about that kind of bias facing legal trouble over months on so what does it mean for the company have they bought a brand there that is in more than one way toxic. few investors at least are certain that this is the case if we look at the share price of buyer since this takeover of all of monsanto came to the table about two

years ago it has lost around about forty percent and you know of course now a lot of investors are worried where there are buyers might become trapped in the u.s. litigation industry if we look at this first trial day in california yesterday it certainly looked like at least a few off the litigation attorneys used the courtroom rather as a huge media outlet a battlefield instead of you know a room that serves to quietly find justice it's very difficult to price such an event from from an investor's point of view i don't know about you but i'm sometimes in recent years a bit embarrassed that any time a big german company makes the headlines always for the wrong reasons it's always hard core proceedings fines indictments be deutsche bank or b w o o'brien is this something wrong with corporate culture germany's. well i think it's important

to know that many of our large conglomerates have been in business for many decades and that some of them have shall i call it old school cultures you know dominated by a bit of a fraternity spirit with you know middle aged white men and their engineers degrees from elite universities dominating the picture this is changing only very slowly but i think to be fair we also have to keep in mind that germany's businesses especially the manufacturers are very international they have. very global e intertwined so of course those businesses are more prone than others in other countries to get in trouble they benefit from the positive sides of globalization but when it comes to cultural or legal differences with other places of the world they of course get to feel this quite easily on who's in frankfurt thank you very

much. and told him of a culture of problems tesla's controversial found in the mosque is in trouble with u.s. regulators again they accuse him of publishing an author writes an authorized tweets again violating an agreement he made with them last year must suggested last week that tesla would make about five hundred thousand cars this year in a court filing before a federal court in new york as easy regulators says the number is wrong last count to resign as chairman of tesla last year and pay a twenty million dollars fine to settle another social media infraction lost. his place twitter the demand for liquefied natural gas is growing worldwide but is particularly strong in asia that's according to a study released by the shell energy company the company says demand in china is stronger than originally forecast chinese imports grew by sixteen million tons

according to shell that represents a forty percent jump over the year before l n g creates less pollutants when burnt than other fossil fuels so china is using more of it so help me climate protection goals. that's it from me on the d.w. business steam there are a lot more business in their views on background stories forbes on our web site that is on the w. dot com business if you don't already do follow us on facebook and twitter stay tuned. a quick check on global markets this softens from.

my first by saying all the sewing machine. i come from women are almost by this notion for. something as simple as learning how to write a buy say isn't. since i was a little girl i wanted to have a bicycle off my home and it took me years to the. finally the game bob invented by me and i say that the tritos the sewing machine sewing i suppose was more apt

pro-create for those than writing a. novel i want to meet those moments back home where bones buy them and social norms and inform them of old dead basic rights my name is them out of the home and they weren't even. hello and a very warm welcome to our news from arts and culture i'm karen helms ted and here's what's in the pipeline for today's show. no shortage of surprises on sunday night at the ninety first academy awards in los angeles green book took on best picture with a best supporting actor not former hershel alley and we'll talk more about the story behind that film. a classic in our series one hundred german must

reads and why you should put the tin drum by nobel prize winner. on your reading list. and we catch up with berlin based illustrator counts men chick who has worked with some of literature's real heavyweights. but first the oscars are the really big deal today and a lot happening there i'm joined by our film expert scott rush for who's looking number worse for wear for the long night. of music we'll tell. you how surprised were you at this weekend for a green book yeah i mean if you're going to design an oscar winning film green book would take a lot of the boxes because it's a lot of story to fuel good story about overcoming racism through the power of friendship. it's also a true story which is come hollywood loves as well in this case it's based on a real man who is a racist.