report
Status: 12/29/2022 4:11 p.m
Energy prices are high, and the government wants to help with a price cap by spring. Despite the good order situation, energy-intensive companies fear for their future. A visit to a state-of-the-art foundry.
It hisses, smokes and rattles in the production hall at the Aco Guss foundry in Kaiserslautern. Forklifts drive back and forth, and workers in silver hazmat suits stand by smelting furnaces. Glowing iron parts are transported on conveyor belts. “We are an energy-intensive company,” says Managing Director Stefan Weber. “And that is exactly what is causing us ever greater problems – not because our products are no longer in demand, but because the local conditions are constantly deteriorating.”
Aco Guss is a medium-sized iron foundry in Kaiserslautern with around 400 employees. Castings for rail transport, mechanical engineering, commercial vehicles or construction and agricultural machinery are manufactured here. The company works with modern, energy-efficient electric induction furnaces. Aco Guss still consumes around 50,000 megawatt hours of electricity every year – mainly for the melting processes. This is exactly what worries Managing Director Weber.
Hoping for cheap prices on the spot market
“We still have an older electricity contract with reasonably reasonable prices that runs until the end of 2022. From January 1st we have to hope for cheap prices on the spot market. That means the price changes every 15 minutes,” explains the managing director. “Electricity is very expensive in the mornings and evenings. At midday, the price level depends on whether the sun is shining or the wind is blowing.”
Works council member Jörg Harz is also concerned about the ups and downs in prices on the electricity exchange. “Colleagues can’t just produce after the electricity,” says Harz. “If you just look at the electricity price, we really only have to work nights and weekends. You can’t expect that from the workforce, which is already very flexible.” Weber nods.
According to Weber, an electricity provider with fixed prices for the entire production year is no longer available given the enormous demand from Aco Guss. “Energy-intensive operations are now a risk in the market. If a company goes bankrupt or does not need that much electricity, the electricity supplier quickly has its own problem with these market prices. He has to shop for himself first.”
Aco Guss currently costs 18 cents per kilowatt hour of electricity. According to careful calculations, the company should pay at least 40 cents next year. This increase in costs cannot even be compensated for by energy saving measures. “The foundry is very energy-efficient. Technically, the system is at its physical limits,” explains Harz.
“We have a power problem”
The federal government’s electricity price cap is supposed to help here. “No,” says Weber, shaking his head. “The lid doesn’t help us much. There are too many exceptions and conditions. At best, we get 3.5 million euros in relief for the entire amount of energy here at the Kaiserslautern site. But we will probably have to pay around 11 million more for electricity alone,” he calculates. The cap is far too complicated and does not solve the structural problem – namely permanently competitive energy prices. “Even if the federal government claims otherwise: we have an electricity problem. ”
Mood in the middle class is very depressed
In Berlin, Matthias Bianchi arranges the last figures for 2022. He works at the German Association of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (DMB). The current mood in small and medium-sized companies is predominantly bad. According to a cross-industry survey, more than 51 percent see their existence threatened because of the very high energy costs in an international comparison.
“The situation is paradoxical: Many companies have full order books. However, they are taking fewer and fewer new orders and are only processing the old orders. They do not know whether they will still be able to produce evenly in a few months,” Bianchi draws a sobering note balance sheet. And: The more energy-intensive the company, the greater the worries about the future.
According to Bianchi, this has numerous consequences. Due to the great uncertainty, investments would be postponed. As a result, there is a risk of losing competitiveness in the long term – especially when it comes to digitization. “Politics at the federal and state level have been resting on their laurels for too long on good economic data. In many areas, this is now falling back on the economy,” says Bianchi. Relocating abroad, as is the case with corporations, is not possible for small and medium-sized companies. “Our companies are tied to their locations – they feel connected to the respective region and their workforce and could not afford it financially either. They are at the mercy of the location.”
fear for jobs
In Kaiserslautern, Aco Guss is now preparing for additional costs of at least eight million euros for 2023. Is it still worth working at all? “We don’t know. It’s ultimately our customers who decide,” speculates Managing Director Weber. “If we stop producing, our competitors in India will take over. But the foundries there still use coke for melting. De-industrialization in this country won’t help the climate,” says Weber.
And among the workforce, concerns about jobs are growing. “We are even afraid of short-time work. That would be 80 percent of the salary, but after the corona lockdowns, the reserves of our colleagues have been used up. Everyone is already saving where they can,” says the Harz works council. “In the end, like Mr. Weber, I rely on the quality of our work and the appreciation of our customers. Actually, we only want to do our work for fair wages.”