steel, paper, chemistry
:
How expensive energy is slowing down industry in Germany
Reading time: 5 mins
Open detailed view
A steelworks in Bremen: Electricity and natural gas-powered systems are more climate-friendly than coal-fired blast furnaces, but they are currently struggling.
(Photo: Sina Schuldt/picture alliance/dpa)
High electricity and gas prices are leaving their mark: companies are reducing production or shutting it down on a daily basis. The consequences range from short-time work to expensive toilet paper.
Of
Saskia Aleythe, Michael Bauchmüller, Caspar Busse and Benedikt Müller-Arnold, Hamburg/Berlin/Munich/Cologne
If you want to see the future of steel production, you have to go to Hamburg. To the west of the port, where ships from all over the world bring iron ore in its red tones to the quay of Arcelormittal. The largest steel company in Europe operates a so-called direct reduction plant there: it does not produce steel with climate-damaging coal, but with natural gas. In the future, Arcelormittal even wants to burn hydrogen, which is obtained from water using a lot of green electricity. It’s the dream of the entire industry: “green” steel, for example for cars or washing machines.
SZ Plus subscribers also read:
life and society
»One should be aware that negotiating is something completely normal«
Russia
Z for Destruction
Mariupol
survival in hell
“Image” Editor-in-Chief
The sufferings of John B.
war in Ukraine
What is Putin breaking?