The energy price brake is good, but not a sufficient solution – thinks the chemical industry in the southwest. Above all, she complains about too much bureaucracy and warns politicians with drastic words.
Baden-Baden (dpa/lsw) – The particularly energy-dependent chemical industry is pushing for quick relief so as not to endanger Germany as a business location. “Energy costs have to go down, especially in view of the desolate state of competitiveness in Germany – healthy industrial structures are in danger of being irretrievably damaged,” said Winfried Golla, general manager of the Association of the Chemical Industry in Baden-Württemberg, to the German Press Agency. It is about “enabling our industrial core to survive and have a future in Germany in times of high energy costs”.
Golla said it was good that the energy price brakes were implemented quickly. “The fact that the urgently needed relief is now arriving too late or only to a very limited extent is fatal.” Instead of providing unbureaucratic help, hurdles for the gas and heat as well as the electricity price brake were further built up, which neither large energy-intensive companies nor medium-sized companies could overcome, the general manager criticized: “In addition to the insufficient upper subsidy limit and the obligation to make provisions, there is now a bonus and dividend regulations that are miles away from the realities of the companies.”
Bonuses and dividends are often an integral part of employment contracts or, especially in medium-sized family businesses, an essential part of income, explained Golla. “A ban on dividends also deters foreign investors in particular and thus represents a tangible handicap in global competition.” The obligation associated with the energy price brakes to maintain jobs “takes the breathing space out of the economy, especially for medium-sized companies that have gotten into trouble as a result of the energy price crisis”.
“If politicians don’t make improvements in a timely manner, our companies will continue to plummet in 2023,” warned Golla. “Further investment stops and production relocations abroad, including plant closures, would be the result.”
The general manager of the Baden-Württemberg Chemical Employers’ Association, Björn Sucher, also called for “a change towards a modern state of the future with more investment-friendly framework conditions”. The initiative from business, cities and municipalities as well as Baden-Württemberg’s financial institutions for a “future convention” is an opportunity: “In an environment marked by war, pandemic and climate change, the state must stop worrying too much about itself,” said Sucher . “The state should rather facilitate future-oriented activities and not prevent them with excessive bureaucracy.”
Municipalities and business have called on Prime Minister Winfried Kretschmann to convene a “future convention” “to initiate a change towards a modern future state with reliable and implementable commitments”. Sucher said: “Our state, our society as a whole – and thus also the economy, including companies in the chemical and pharmaceutical industries, have great potential for future-oriented innovations – especially in the areas of energy, digitization and climate protection.” There should be no “business as usual”. “We finally have to make a big hit.”
480 companies with around 108,000 employees are organized in the associations of the chemical and pharmaceutical industry in Baden-Württemberg. The majority are small and medium-sized companies. 80 percent have fewer than 300 employees. The turnover of the industry in the southwest was around 46 billion euros in 2021. The largest sub-sectors are pharmaceuticals (37 percent), lacquers, paints and building protection (12 percent) and glues, adhesives and mineral oil (8 percent).
