As of: February 7, 2024, 2:31 p.m
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Yellow pipes, which carry natural gas on the one hand and hydrogen on the other, are installed in an industrial plant owned by Evonik.
© Philipp von Ditfurth/dpa
The chemical industry is struggling with rising energy prices.
Now there is a round of collective bargaining - with demands that, from the employers' point of view, are "miles" short of reality.
Current figures show how difficult this is.
Stuttgart/Baden-Baden - The chemical and pharmaceutical industry in Baden-Württemberg, which has been burdened by rising energy prices, is expecting declines in production and sales in the current year.
“Chemistry is in crisis mode,” said the chairman of the Baden-Württemberg Chemical Employers’ Association, Patrick Krauth, on Wednesday in Stuttgart.
A survey among companies shows: The Baden-Württemberg associations expect a decline in sales of three percent in 2024.
They also assume a decline in production of one percent and a reduction in personnel in a quarter of the companies.
The most serious risks to their development are high energy costs, labor costs and bureaucracy.
“The industrial electricity price in Germany is now twice as high as in France and four times as high as in the USA,” said Krauth.
There are also geopolitical risks and concerns about functioning supply chains.
Upcoming collective bargaining round
In the upcoming collective bargaining round, the Mining, Chemical and Energy Industrial Union (IG BCE) is demanding, among other things, an increase in wages by six to seven percent.
The union also recommends a demand for more collective bargaining protection exclusively for IG-BCE members and a modernization of the federal collective wage agreement.
Krauth emphasized that this round of collective bargaining should not place any further burden on the industry: “We have to keep an eye on the competitiveness of our companies.
Ultimately, it is also the guarantee of secure jobs.” Even if a demand is not yet a collective bargaining agreement, such a recommendation for demands is “miles away” from the reality in the industry, he continued.
Pharma is an exception
The chemical and pharmaceutical industry ended last year with a decline in production of 1.4 percent compared to 2022.
The number of employees grew by 3.8 percent to around 64,000.
However, these statistics only take companies with more than 50 employees into account.
Sales fell by 0.2 percent to 26.2 billion euros, with the pharmaceutical division, viewed in isolation, recording an increase of a good eleven percent.
This means that the pharmaceutical industry has so far been the sub-sector “that has come through the crisis relatively stable overall,” said the state chairman of the Association of the Chemical Industry, Martin Haag.
Nevertheless, drug manufacturers expected domestic sales to fall in 2024 and investments to stagnate in the majority.
“This is not a good sign for a research-intensive industry,” said Haag.
Then no new jobs would be created in a few years.
“Germany as a location is wobbling.”
All in all, there are 486 member companies with 113,000 employees in the chemical and pharmaceutical industry associations in Baden-Württemberg.
The largest sub-sectors are pharmaceuticals (44 percent), varnishes, paints and building protection (12 percent) and personal care and detergents (8 percent).
dpa