If your head has ever landed in an airbag after a car accident or if you are taking diabetes medication, you probably owe your life to a German chemical company: Alzchem from Trostberg in Upper Bavaria produces chemical products without which these products would be impossible: propellants for airbags, ingredients for medicines, precursors for corona tests and fertilizers.
Alzchem is not the only company in the world to produce these products, but it is the only Western company. Because all other companies are based in China, in the event of a conflict between the West and China, only Alzchem will save the lives of diabetics, drivers and corona risk patients.
As long as politicians fear an escalation of the Taiwan conflict and want to make Germany more independent from the all-powerful supplier from the Far East, they should support Alzchem wherever they can. But they don’t, says boss Andreas Niedermaier.
Alzchem boss feels abandoned by politics
One example: Alzchem pays “at least twice or even three times” as much for electricity as its competitors from China, says Niedermaier. This is also because they do not adequately take the CO2 price into account. However, politicians have not yet decided on a low industrial electricity price.
Niedermaier feels abandoned by politics, even though he regularly does lobbying work: “When we describe our problems to politicians in Berlin and Brussels, they usually point out that the products are available on the world market. I don’t know how that fits in with the German government’s aim of becoming more independent from China.”
Subsidies or not? Both create problems
Niedermaier’s disappointment highlights a dilemma: There will be no cheap electricity prices in Germany in the foreseeable future, says Ifo boss Clemens Fuest. Subsidies such as an industrial electricity price only make sense to bridge temporary crises. Otherwise, Germany will create a permanent subsidy that artificially saves companies that are no longer able to survive from going under. It is better to accompany the change, says Fuest.
Niedermaier shows that this statement explains many cases, but not all. His company is the only Western company that supplies an essential component of a diabetes medication that German doctors prescribe millions of times each year. Without Azlchem, China can blackmail Germany.
The Federal Republic is trying to combine the advantages of both solutions. Alzchem makes it clear how much is at stake.
Alzchem increases sales and profits
Alzchem is currently doing well economically. Profits and sales are growing. Many companies buy from the Upper Bavarian company despite higher prices because they value quality and reliability, says Niedermaier. And because they want to become more independent from China.
Obermaier hopes for special rules to be able to compete economically. But many politicians don’t listen to him at all, he told Wirtschaftswoche. “Most of them are dogmatists.”
