Industry and union concerned about energy prices
Hesse’s metal and electrical industry continues to struggle with material shortages and sharply increased energy prices. The latter could depress companies’ investment mood, explained Hessenmetall President Wolf Matthias Mang on Tuesday in Frankfurt when presenting the industry balance sheet for the past year. He described the Russian attack on the Ukraine as “Putin’s war, which violates international law”, the consequences of which for the Hessian economy are not yet fully foreseeable and further forecasts are subject to change.
The trade and financial sanctions against Russia have already led to production restrictions and short-time work because of a lack of certain special metals, Mang explained. The restricted foreign trade with Russia will primarily affect mechanical engineering, which with around 185 million has the largest share in the export of goods worth over 400 million euros to Russia, which corresponds to around one percent of the total export of the Hessian metal and electrical industry. However, the increase in energy prices is more serious for companies.
These also concern the employee representatives. On Tuesday, the DGB called for accelerated implementation of the energy transition and relief for low- and middle-income households and energy-intensive industry. “We need massive investments, for example in renewable energies, networks, charging stations for electromobility, hydrogen and in public transport,” explained Michael Rudolph, chairman of the DGB district of Hesse-Thuringia. In order to be able to finance the investments, the DGB calls, among other things, for the establishment of a transformation fund at state level.
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