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Energy crisis: How an aluminum producer wants to save gas

2022-08-10T04:50:21.376Z


The Röders aluminum foundry is an important supplier to the German automotive industry. But the gas prices make the current production unprofitable. The boss has several ideas on how to counteract this.


AreaRead the video transcript expand here

Aluminum has been flowing and poured into molds here for 200 years.

But that's over now - at least temporarily.

The reason for this is the current energy crisis.

Gerd Röder, managing director of the aluminum foundry: »You have to know that starting up a foundry and heating up the furnace is very energy-intensive.

When it's running, we can keep the energy consumption at a good level.

But always switching them off in the evening, cooling them down overnight, heating them up in the morning is crazy expensive.«

Röder's gas bill has doubled to 12.3 million euros since last year.

Now he is converting production: for three weeks, his colleagues work 24-hour shifts with the appropriate allowances, after which he shuts down the foundry for a week.

In this way, he hopes to keep production going while reducing his gas bill.

The plant produces more than 1,000 parts, primarily for customers in the automotive industry such as Volkswagen and Continental, but also for aircraft manufacturers and medical technology companies.

Roeders must now renegotiate with them.

Gerd Röder, managing director of the aluminum foundry: »Our customers aren't interested in us going bankrupt either.

In this respect, we approach our customers, talk to them and openly disclose our prices and say: you have to pay more now.

Because: it makes no sense to deliver parts where you put money on it and don't earn anything.«

Along with steel and glass, aluminum is indispensable for the production of cars.

And the foundry is even more dependent on natural gas than the car manufacturers themselves. What to do?

Together with other aluminum manufacturers and a university, Roeders wants to develop a melting furnace that runs exclusively on hydrogen.

"We want - and we have also accelerated this - to drive a mixture of gas and 30 to 40 percent hydrogen this year.

But we want to run tests this year to run a furnace entirely with hydrogen.

Nevertheless, we are at the beginning of a development.«

The technology needs to be scaled up and a hydrogen fueling station network set up.

And so it will probably be several years before the new furnace can go into operation.

For this winter, the first thing to do is save gas and dress warmly.

Source: spiegel

All business articles on 2022-08-10

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