The German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has called for this Monday a meeting with representatives of the steel industry with the aim of presenting measures to save the sector and does not exclude a state rescue of Thyssenkruppas he said this Saturday in an interview with the group’s media Funke.
“Steel will continue to accompany our industry for centuries and now it is about ensuring long-term steel production in Germany. It has a geostrategic importance“declared the chancellor.
Scholz proposes capping the price of electricity, building classic blast furnaces and protecting against unfair Chinese competition
As a first measure to support this energy-intensive industry, Scholz proposed a electricity price capped at three centsalthough, with his Government in a minority and early elections scheduled for February, it is unlikely that the chancellor will be able to implement this step in this legislature.
Secondly, the chancellor pointed out the need to locate in Germany all the value production chainso the construction of alternatives to classic blast furnaces should be encouraged.
Finally, Scholz urged the European Commission (EC) to act to better protect European companies from the unfair competition supposedly coming from countries like China, which are accused of selling at a loss.
The chancellor did not exclude the possibility of a rescue of the steel division of the steel company Thyssenkrupp, which announced last month its intention to cut or relocate, by 2030, 11,000 of a total of 27,000 jobs and the closure of the Kreuztal-Eichen.
Scholz pointed out in this regard that these types of actions occur again and again and pointed to the state participation in the shipyard Meyer-Werftin energy Uniper or, during the pandemic, in the Lufhansa airline.
According to data from the statistics office Destatisin the third quarter of 2024 orders from the steel industry fell by 9.4% compared to the previous quarter and by 9.7% compared to the same period of the previous year, while production contracted by 2 .7% year-on-year.
The reason for the crisis in the steel industry is the rise in energy prices following the war in Ukraine and the drop in sales volume
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