"Due to the war in Ukraine, the availability of energy is no longer unlimited. Today we are confronted with a situation that we had never faced before in the entire post-war history" stated Dr. Heike Denecke-Arnold, Chief Operations Officer of thyssenkrupp Steel Europe AG. According to Clemens Küpper, President of the Federal Association of the German Foundry Industry (BDG) and head of the Baumgarte iron foundry, many (medium-sized) foundries in Germany are currently losing orders, because customers tend to order from competitors abroad like in Turkey and Poland, but also in France and China, where electricity and gas prices are more favourable. Even the additional logistics costs are not crucial for the decision to order from foreign suppliers.
"I urge politicians to introduce a fixed industrial electricity price", Clemens Küpper
"The industrial prices for electricity and gas have greatly increased by 20 to 25 percent, whereby they were directly passed to the customers. And we are not talking about an increase of a few cents! There was a jump from 3 cents to 42 cents! This development makes our industry "vulnerable" and "attackable", states Küpper, who points out that Germany as an industrial location will be in danger if politicians fail the energy turnaround.
In fact, foundry products are more important than ever: "Casting products are needed everywhere," emphasises BDG Managing Director Max Schumacher, who cites the automotive industry and mechanical engineering. But casting parts are also needed for drive systems, appliances, medical technology or wind power stations and solar plants, to mention only a few.
Mona Neubaur (Bündnis 90/ die Grünen), Minister for Economic and Industry, Climate Protection and Energy of the German state NRW, also emphasised the current problem: "The survival of the German industry is at stake. That is why we need a competitive industrial electricity price. Here in NRW, I would like to see a "smart growth" by developing successful business models based on the industrial electricity price," stated Neubaur.
"The survival of the German industry is at stake. That's why we need a competitive industrial electricity price," Mona Neubaur
According to Neubaur, German companies should hurry up. ” In the future, Germany will not be the location where low-price energy is available - in fact, the opposite is the case. If we want to be competitive, we have to be better and faster than others, and this is the point where digitalisation comes into play," states Neubaur, who recognises digitalisation as a way to solve this problem.
"There will be a debate on prosperity and wealth in Germany, because from today's point of view it is not certain if we can hold our standard in the future," Dr. Ioannis Ioannidis
"Germany is one of the best places to live and work. We have a good standard of education and benefited from globalisation. Today we are struggling with de-globalisation," states Dr. Ioannis Ioannidis, who warns that Germany will face difficulties as an industrial location in the future, which cannot longer be ignored. "There will be a debate on prosperity and wealth in Germany, because from today's point of view it is not certain if we can keep up our standard in the future," says Ioannidis. We would also have to deal with the question whether society is ready to support our industry.
