Quite energy-intensive - and possibly also expensive for the state in the future: steel production in Germany
Photo: Julian Stratenschulte/ dpa
Industrial unions see hundreds of thousands of jobs at risk because of the relatively high electricity prices in Germany by international standards.
According to a statement by the trade unions IG Metall, IG Bergbau Chemie Energie (IG BCE) and IG BAU, there is a risk of job losses and site closures, particularly in energy-intensive sectors such as the steel, chemical and building materials industries.
With a nationwide day of action on Thursday, they want to emphasize the demand for an industrial electricity price that is internationally competitive and ensures long-term planning.
Several dozen public and company-public actions and rallies are planned.
Fear of deindustrialization
Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck (Greens) had announced that he would submit proposals for a state-subsidized industrial electricity price in the first half of 2023.
The German economy has been complaining for a long time about high energy costs compared to other countries.
Although the state price brakes are now in place, they are only insufficiently dampening the increase, according to the trade unions.
"The federal government must intervene to regulate the industrial electricity price," demanded Jörg Hofmann, first chairman of IG Metall: "Otherwise steel production, the aluminum industry and other energy-intensive sectors are in danger of disappearing from Germany sooner or later.
Hundreds of thousands of jobs would be directly and indirectly affected.«
The chairman of the IG BCE Michael Vassiliadis said the chemical and paper industries have a particularly high energy requirement.
»At the same time, they are at the beginning of almost all industrial value-added processes.
If they close plants and relocate production due to high electricity costs, that is the first step towards deindustrialization in Germany.«
beb/dpa