Major German steel plant threatened with closure due to green energies transition…
German site pleiteticker.de here reports on one of the latest victim’s of the green energy’s debacle in Germany as the fourth-largest steel producer is now seriously threatened with closure.
Much of Germany’s industrial bas been hard hit by the skyrocketing energy prices that have resulted from the country’s move to green energies, like sun and wind, and away from nuclear power and fossil fuels.
“3100 jobs are now in acute danger, reports opleiteticker.de. “The planned conversion to climate-neutral steel production at Hüttenwerke Krupp Mannesmann (HKM) in Duisburg is in danger of failing due to financing, according to IG Metall. IG Metall is Germany’s powerful industrial and engineering trade union, representing more than 2 million workers nationwide.
“That would be the end of Germany’s second-largest steel mill,” the IG Metall reported Thursday in Frankfurt am Main.
Pleiteticker calls the recent development “a brewing tragedy”.
HKM aims to replace its two blast furnaces in the years 2025 to 2045 so that they will gradually use more and more climate-neutral hydrogen. However, the cost-effectiveness is proving questionable.
“But this project is now bringing the historic plant to the brink of extinction,” writes pleiteticker.de. “The site has a shortfall of a good two billion euros,” and it “will no longer be competitive after 2030, according to IG Metall and the Works Council.”
If the plant were to be shuttered, production would likely be moved offshore to a location where energy is cheaper and environmental regulations lax. It would also mean another major blow to Germany as a place for industry. Thanks to the climate madness.