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Chemicals maker BASF India Ltd reported a 45% fall in its profit for the quarter ended March 31 on Wednesday, hurt by weak sales and a surge in input costs.

The Indian arm of Germany's BASF said its profit slipped to 823.9 million rupees ($10.07 million) in the quarter, from 1.5 billion rupees a year earlier.

The Mumbai-based company's sales fell to 32.5 billion rupees from 33.59 billion rupees a year ago. Its sales have been steadily declining since the start of the fiscal year 2022-23, dragging its profit to millions in the previous quarter from billions, the first time in seven quarters.

Revenue from the company's main division, the materials business, slipped to 9.78 billion rupees, from 10.13 billion rupees year ago. Its cost of materials spiked by nearly 20% year on year.

The segment's portfolio includes specialised goods for the plastics and plastic processing industries, and innovative materials.

BASF's chemicals segment, which consists of the petrochemicals and intermediates products, dropped about 21% year on year.

Shares of BASF India fell nearly 6% after its quarterly results.

($1 = 81.7800 Indian rupees)