German ‘small summit' demands better conditions for EDP
Following the "dialogue on steel" organized by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz earlier in November, the National Federation of Steel Manufacturers, W.
V. Stahl, convened another meeting last week to increase support for medium-sized steel mills operating electric arc furnaces.
"Electric steel mills are the backbone of a closed-cycle economy and a key factor in the decarbonization of heavy industry," Gunnar Grobler, President of WV Stahl, said at the meeting. Like most presidents over the years, Grobler is a representative of one of the largest listed companies, Salzgitter AG, which, however, is also an active operator of the Payne electric steel plant.
Electric steel mills account for 30% of Germany's steel production and employ 32,000 people. Grobler noted that electric steel mills have been particularly affected by electricity prices, which are not internationally competitive.
Among its requests, WV has asked policy makers to set an industrial electricity price of 30-60 euros ($35-69) per megawatt hour, including all related costs. This figure echoes the request made earlier when V.
V. Stahl criticized the government's project to raise prices for industrial electricity (see Callanish on November 19).
The EAF summit also raised the issue of protecting domestic scrap supplies and extending the Carbon Boundary Regulation Mechanism (CBAM) to steel-based imports.
In a response, Gerber, a stainless steel trader, called the summit "a declaration of war on manufacturers." Gerber refutes several statistics given in.
V. Stahl, to illustrate the deterioration of the situation in recent years. "The problems that steel producers themselves create They are hiding behind a dangerous propaganda machine consisting of half-truths developed solely in the interests of large enterprises," Gerber writes.
Christian Kel Germany
Kallanish.com