Steel industry: Scholz invites you to a steel summit in the Chancellery

Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) invites top industry representatives, works councils and trade unionists to a steel summit in the Chancellery on Monday. Scholz said on the short message service X that it was about concrete measures to secure steel production in Germany. Reliable electricity prices, promoting investments and protecting against dumping are important.

Scholz told the newspapers of the Funke media group: “Steel will accompany our industry for centuries to come and it is now important to secure steel production in Germany in the long term. This has geostrategic significance.”

Germany’s largest steel company Thyssenkrupp announced in November that the number of jobs in the steel sector would shrink by 11,000 within six years. Of the current 27,000 jobs, 16,000 should still be left. Employee representatives and IG Metall are threatening long-term resistance in view of the job cuts plans at Thyssenkrupp Stahl.

Scholz was concerned at the announcement. “Since the turn of the century, we have learned that companies in the defense industry are too often dependent on suppliers from countries where we cannot always be sure whether we will get the material we need at any time,” Scholz told the daily newspaper. New Westphalian”. It is important not to be susceptible to blackmail.

When asked whether the state should get involved with Thyssenkrupp Stahl, the Chancellor told the Funke media group: “I’m not taking any option off the table now.” There have been such investments again and again, most recently at the Meyer shipyard in Papenburg, at the energy company Uniper or during the pandemic at Lufthansa. The government’s commitment is limited in time and should help companies overcome dry spells.

Economics Minister Robert Habeck emphasized that steel is the starting point for many industrial value chains. Germany cannot afford to become dependent on third countries here.

“And in times of climate change, we must have the ambition to switch to green steel here and set a successful example,” said the Green politician. The four major steel manufacturers would be supported with a total of almost seven billion euros to convert production at their locations to green steel. The projects are central to the transformation of the economy and the ramp-up of hydrogen.

The ailing German steel industry received fewer orders in the third quarter of 2024. The value of the order fell by 9.4 percent compared to the previous quarter, as the Federal Statistical Office recently announced. Compared to the same period last year, the decline is 9.7 percent. A key reason for the weak steel economy is the sharp increase in energy prices as a result of the war in Ukraine. In the first quarter of 2022 – at the time of the Russian attack – production was 5.2 percent higher than currently.

Steel industry sales have also declined. Between July and September 2024, companies generated 1.8 percent less revenue than in the second quarter. According to the Federal Statistical Office, 71,200 people were still employed in the industry at the end of September.