Essay by Eric Worrall
h/t observa; I’m sure those cheaper renewable energy prices will kick in. Any day now.
Billions at stake: Chancellor Merz backs European patriotism for steel
Story by Franziska Müller
Germany’s steel industry is facing an “existential crisis”, Chancellor Friedrich Merz warned, as he signalled a shift toward greater economic self-reliance in Europe. He spoke alongside Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil following a summit at the Chancellery on Thursday, convened to find ways to secure the sector’s future.
…
€50 billion at risk
Steelmaking in Germany is heavily dependent on high temperatures, making it particularly vulnerable to soaring energy prices. As a result, German steel has become increasingly uncompetitive compared with imports.
In the worst-case scenario, the country could lose its status as an industrial powerhouse, with companies moving production abroad. A study by the University of Mannheim, commissioned by the Hans Böckler Foundation, warned that such a shift could cost the German economy up to €50bn a year in lost value added.
The researchers estimated that at least 30,000 jobs could be lost if domestic production were to collapse. They said key sectors such as metal manufacturing, mechanical and electrical engineering, and the automotive industry would face sharply higher costs if forced to rely on imported steel.
…
Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-au/money/news/billions-at-stake-chancellor-merz-backs-european-patriotism-for-steel/ar-AA1PYDk9
The economic illiteracy of this government proposal in my opinion demonstrates why the German economy has been slipping so badly over the last few decades.
Imposing higher tariffs without addressing underlying economic problems such as high energy prices, as President Trump is doing in the USA, will not save German industry, it just shifts the pain downstream onto German end use manufacturers. In an economy as dependent on exports as Germany, this absurd steel patriotism proposal is a recipe for capital flight and economic ruin.
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It isn’t only the Fatherland. Must be an Anglo-Saxon thing.
It is not.
From the baltics to Canada and Australia they all sell out their own for a dime(except for the few places run by Hitlers),
but they’d all give their lives in a second to protect one and the same country.
Canada and Australia are schizophrenic former colonies of empire. The latter going from penal colony to loony bin in record time.
That being the case, they’re only following the behavioral lead set by their “homeland” – Great Britain.
The elites….
There is a distinction. Who else would crave an empire?
Canada was heading for loony bin status. Then the idiot prime minister abandoned/fled his office. The worst of the climatastrophy policies including the national carbon tax were immediately deep-sixed. The most idiotic of Justatwit’s cabinet were demoted or exiled to the back-benches. PM Carney is talking a lot about the need to build major national infrastructure like pipelines. But there are a number of legislative impediments to this which will require repealing of some sensitive legislation. The government wants to prune back the size of the civil service, but this will certainly provoke hostility from the public sector unions.
Things are still very far from perfect. But the worst of the idiots are gone, and there is at least some hope. Trade hostility from the US has pushed this along much further.
STORY TIP: Director of the Baghdad Bob Corporation
Another idiot (actually more of a criminal) gone:
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2025/11/09/bbc-director-general-tim-davie-resigns-over-alleged-fake-news-about-donald-trump/
Resigned over BBC’s TDS, so not sure it will have an effect on their blanket coverage of something that doesn’t exist – the climate crisis.
Considering the BBC has specialized in re-writing history for most of the last 70 years, it’s odd to hear of a BBC officer resigning for it.
Ease off the Beebs are still working on the question of they who can get pregnant-
BBC host breaks rules after correcting ‘pregnant people’ to ‘women’ live on air | news.com.au — Australia’s leading news site for latest headlines
Don’t rush them or they get flustered.
I don’t think things have changed much in Canada. Carney is still stopping pipelines, just not saying it openly. All the major fantasy projects will have to be net zero with carbon capture included in order to go ahead.
Carbon tax is still on and increasing at the industry level.
Heavy industry will still have to be net zero by 2035.
Is there a road back? The bad governance of replacing an energy production and delivery system that worked with one which hasn’t yet may just be the road to failure of German engineering.
Just need to fire back up those nuclear plants. Oh wait.
Wrecking their own nuclear power plants
while paying for the ones in Ukraine.
Nothing says more ” we are a totally independent country ” than such absurd behavior.
Nothing to see here I guess.
It’s why they’re referred to as l!btards
No. Germany is in a death spiral.
Ditching the absurd subsidies for ever taller windmills would be a good step in the right direction.
They thought they needed carbon free coke.
I thought that that all got sent to Zelenskyy in Ukraine!
That’s funny!
I think they are already using too much carbon emissions-free ‘coke’.
O/T:
Tim Davie, the director-general of the BBC, has resigned after a BBC Panorama documentary misled viewers, the broadcaster has announced.
Deborah Turness, the CEO of News at the national broadcaster, has also resigned.
https://www.gbnews.com/news/bbc-boss-tim-davie-resigns-amid-systemic-bias-allegations
but will they be held criminally liable? There must be consequence for their despicable propoganda.
Er, no.
Oooops, should’ve scrolled down before posting above. Hey such incredibly good news is worth posting twice though.
Maybe someone should file a lawsuit against him personally, however speculative, to give the next fake news director heir apparent reason to think about whether or not he/she should take it on.
But the Energiewende must be enforced, at all costs!
We’re going to hang out the washing on the Siegfried line….
Is there something in the water in Germany that compels them go full Mungo every half century or so?
Early training to be compliant towards their “betters;” combined with a diet high in food-like substances, low in the necessary amino and fatty acids for higher brain function; make for a populous that is easily gaslit! Women and children are the most affected, especially young women; as can be seen in the recent election results in NYC!
That is so ludicrous that I’m wondering if it was a false flag operation. A view that was compounded by him asking the public for money less than 24 hours after election. Stay with me here: Trump has every reason to hate New York (City and State after what they tried to do to him) and he’s in a position to withhold millions of dollars from them. Mamdani is capable of causing measurable high-visibility destruction before the mid-terms next year. The Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa, got only 8% of the vote, had no real campaign and nobody even knew why he wore a red beret. Even I knew that, but there were some prominent talking heads who thought it was a bad fashion statement.
Talking heads are known to be blithering idiots…
But well coiffed.
‘A view that was compounded by him asking the public for money less than 24 hours after election.’
Well, at least he’s asking for donations to fund his transition team – Commisars don’t work for free ya know. The gloves won’t come off until after his inauguration, at which time they’ll no longer be asking for support, but telling everybody what to do.
Merz just wants to stay in office by preferring a tiny carrot.
This could be a first for the climate crusades– an existential (climate) crisis causes an existential (political) crisis. Many more of these will follow.
Tell all these talentless politicians to go read Adam Smith’s “The Wealth of Nations”, they don’t even need to read about putting heads on pins, just the basic rules, unless you want a revolution as in france…. do not de-industrialise, do not give away your IP, employ your own people. use your resources to your countries advantage, conserve and use your wealth wisely. A rising tide raises all ships.
and the automotive industry would face sharply higher costs if forced to rely on imported steel.
So the domestic steel is going out of business because it can’t compete with imported steel. Because the imported steel is cheaper. But if you use lower cost steel it makes the price of building a car go UP?
The education system has failed us.
Or…..
In recent history, Germany made domestic steel that was cheap enough to keep the imported steel out of the country. As the price of producing the domestic product went up, the overseas sources didn’t become cheaper, they simply became competitive.
So, a failing domestic industry results in, (what was previously), more expensive steel suppliers, becoming the lowest priced. So yes, raising the cost of local secondary production can make the cost of downstream tertiary produced goods go up.
That is also true, its just not what the article says. Had they laid it out that way, I would have agreed with it. But as written it is wrong. They clearly said that switching to cheaper imported steel would sharply raise costs for cars. Its not switching that raised the cost of cars. Its the increase in the price of steel from domestic producers that raised the price of the cars. The switch mitigates the price rise, it doesn’t cause it.
My understanding is that China has made a deliberate long term effort to over produce and take over world steel production and most other industry. At the same time western nations have worked hard at over regulating heavy industry and penalising fuel burning.
The result is no surprise. Germany once excelled at making steel. Same for the US.
The self-evident contradiction of the statement also caught my eye – are we to assume that German car makers will deliberately increase costs by buying expensive imported steel – ludicrous – they will switch to cheaper imports to reduce costs.
When politicians are the cause of the problem they will be blind to the awful truth of their policies – that the egergiewende has done more damage to German industry than the RAF achieved in WWII.
Krupp survived 300 bomber raids but is likely to fail because of Germany’s obsession with the Nett Zero chimera.
Well noted, Mr Hoffer.
Wait. I didn’t know that coke and natural gas were “renewable energies”. What? Ohhh -, they use fairy dust and unicorn farts instead. Mkay.
The existential crisis for climate grifters is becoming obsolete. Desperately clinging to irrational energy policies just causes more harm. Not that these people are capable of admitting to mistakes.
Or even recognizing them.
Only a government could be this stupid. What on earth is wrong with these people? Almost all of your problems are caused by your stinking Net Zero policies they make zero sense, they are nonsense. Fire up all fossil fuel and nuclear generators, build new fossil fuel and nuclear generators, remove all wind and solar from the grid, withdraw all renewable mandates including EV do this and Germany will prosper. Don’t do it and you will sink further into the stinking hell hole you are staring down. It is that simple.
How far down the AGW rabbit hole do you have to go before realizing you’ve been swindled? Some are waiting until the bottom is reached. Others are seeing the bottom and trying not to get there.
The Germans should just build weapons. That worked last time.
Why believe in that?
W.A.R., the threat of Total War, has a way of changing everything.
Plus world-leading optics & laser systems, including fabrication of their ‘targets’.
Cited explicitly is the late-’22 laser shot heard around the world, at the National Ignition Facility (NIF, Livermore California).
It was accomplished with 1980s-class (obsolete & inefficient) optics and lasers.
Now Germany will build its own NIF, by 2029, using state-of-the-art drivers far more powerful than the U.S.-of-A.
*https://www.bundesregierung.de/breg-de/aktuelles/fusionskraftwerk-deutschland-2386532
1112618_Aktionsplan_Fusion
Yeah, you bet.
Looks to me that, economically and culturally, Germany is intent on being a third-world country. They should achieve that status in both within about three years at their current rate of decline.
“Germany is intent on being a third-world country.”
The UK are the world leader, so we’ll get there first, we’ve got S S S Stammer & Miniprick to lead us.
Plus the UK is letting in third-world residents to get the country ready for its new status.
and they say all this oblivious tot the fact that it was their policies that created the problem in the first place – incredible – what’s next – we have a crime problem so let’s import more muslims
As a result, German steel has become increasingly uncompetitive compared with imports.
And then:
They said key sectors such as metal manufacturing, mechanical and electrical engineering, and the automotive industry would face sharply higher costs if forced to rely on imported steel.
Which if the first statement is correct – and it is – means the second one is rubbish. And in any case all those sectors are on the way out due to the high energy costs the steel manufacturers face and all the whole raft of moronic legislation that makes operating in Germany unattractive, topped up by ones from the EU.