Habeck on the Steel Summit: “We have invested too little in the country’s competitiveness in the last 20 years” | EUROtoday

Hendrik Wüst is a stranger to sleep issues. “I have a blessed night's sleep,” says the Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia. The proven fact that his black-green state authorities, along with the Federal Ministry of Economics, is paying round two billion euros in funding for Thyssenkrupp's “tkH2Steel” mission, with which Germany's largest metal producer desires to make its method into climate-friendly metal manufacturing by constructing a so-called direct discount plant on the Duisburg web site, has stored the CDU politician awake at evening.

“I didn't sleep well for two nights,” admits Wüst. “Because of the scale of the project.” After all, some huge cash is concerned. “And at a time when we can't afford it at all.”

Nevertheless, the funding is just not in query. “Our commitment is clear and certain. We stand by it,” stated Wüst on the second National Steel Summit within the Mercator Hall in Duisburg, the place prime politicians from the state and federal authorities met with commerce unionists and entrepreneurs in addition to the Steel Industry Association. Steel is, in spite of everything, one of many pillars of Germany as an industrial location and is originally of many worth chains. “Without steel, there would be no mechanical engineering, no car industry, no construction of housing and infrastructure,” explains Wüst. Steel has custom and historical past and is a part of the DNA of this nation. “And we want it to stay that way.”

Wüst is referring to ongoing discussions about whether or not and why metal ought to nonetheless be produced in Germany. The business is in a deep disaster. On the one hand, there’s a lack of demand from the vital buyer industries, and on the opposite, low cost imports, particularly from Asia, are getting into the German market and destroying the worth construction for home suppliers, who’re at the moment barely in a position to produce competitively attributable to excessive power prices and community charges. At the identical time, nonetheless, the ailing business, which alone accounts for seven p.c of greenhouse fuel emissions on this nation, should obtain the inexperienced transformation.

“Energy costs are eating up all resources”

However, there may be now a scarcity of cash for this climate-neutral conversion. “Energy costs are eating up all the funds that are actually intended for investments in the future,” says Anne-Marie Großmann, Managing Director of Georgsmarienhütte Holding, and warns: “What is not invested today will be gone tomorrow or the day after.”

The concern of closures and migration can be worrying the Steel Industry Association. “It's not five to twelve, it's already twelve,” says Gunnar Groebler, the president of the business affiliation. Together with IG Metall and the economics ministers of the eleven federal states with metal places akin to North Rhine-Westphalia, Lower Saxony, Bavaria, Bremen, Hamburg and Saarland, he’s calling for extra assist from the federal authorities to make sure the survival of the metal business in Germany.

To this finish, these concerned have formulated the “National Steel Action Plan” and handed it over to Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck (Greens). It requires, for instance, aggressive power costs, a sooner growth of renewable energies, a restrict on electrical energy community prices, but additionally the creation of inexperienced lead markets, i.e. the event of demand for CO2-reduced metal with the assistance of public contracts. “A competitive domestic steel industry is essential for industrial value creation networks, prosperity, employment and a green transformation in Germany and Europe,” the motion plan states.

“Green steel made in Germany is what drives us”

Habeck was open to assist throughout his look on the metal summit. “Green steel made in Germany is what drives us,” stated the minister. Because that’s undoubtedly the long run. “Steel will be produced green in the future. The only political question is: should it also be produced in Germany and Europe,” stated Habeck, earlier than instantly giving the reply himself: “The answer to that can only be 'yes'. It is unthinkable that we in Germany and Europe do not have production capacity for steel for all the areas that we need, from armaments and the security industry to infrastructure. We would be dependent on foreign imports in all key areas.” That can’t be proper.

“The commitment to Germany as a steel location is a commitment to the resilience not only of the economy, but of the entire national economy.” The path of transformation that has been taken should due to this fact be continued collectively.

Habeck sees alternatives for assist in two areas specifically: by altering procurement regulation and by subsidizing community prices. When it involves procurement regulation, the minister is considering of tender standards that favor inexperienced metal from Germany, as he defined on the metal summit. “This would secure investments in green steel with a secure demand.”

Secondly, the difficulty of power prices have to be addressed. “This is primarily about infrastructure measures,” explains the minister. The growth of the electrical energy grids is of elementary significance. “Everyone can see that we have invested too little in the country's competitiveness over the last 15 or 20 years – and not by accident. We were systematically underfinanced.” But this gives a political justification for not passing the excessive prices of grid growth on to firms, who will instantly should bear the prices and forestall investments. Instead, in line with Habeck, the state ought to step in.

“We should now use the power of solid budgets”

“The money saved has not gone up in smoke, it has created the opportunity to have solid budgets. We should now use this power.” This means taking out state loans for community growth. “We can use Germany's strong fiscal firepower for this.” Especially because the mandatory infrastructure is being constructed for the following generations. “That would at least be an attempt at a political argument – and I think it is suitable for Markus Lanz and Tagesschau.”

However, Habeck himself apparently doesn’t consider in additional than phrases on a chat present or information broadcast in the case of the subject of community price financing. When requested by WELT how doubtless this concept is, the Vice Chancellor performed it down. “It is not very likely in the current budget negotiations, otherwise we would have proposed it already.” But this debate have to be held.

Steel President Groebler is accordingly disillusioned and now hopes that the coalition companions SPD and FDP, in addition to the opposition, will probably be prepared to debate the difficulty. “We need a comprehensive consensus.” Especially since not solely the metal business is affected, however all energy-intensive industries in Germany.