the ads are off today, but stay with us for an interview with the leading and german industrial companies . theo, who says the sector is bouncing back in 2024, will have more headlines at the top of the next hour. the do big companies play a role in the destruction of the rain forest. the letter for luxury costs awesome comes from illegal capital funds in the m as in the yes, the automobile industry doesn't care about the supply chain profit. all that much illegal level starts may said on d w, the, it's one of germany's largest steel and machinery manufacturers. results gets

a g now says it had a rocky 2023 march, but higher borrowing and energy costs or go to a grub. le is the old, so i'll get you and he joins me now for more going on. thank you for coming onto our show. 20. 23. your earnings before taxes. less than a 5th of what it was in 20222022. rather. your industry knows ups and downs. how bad was this year? well actually i think you have to see um or the the, the year 2023 in the context of 222220. 22 has been a record here for us as good time for the entire state industry in germany, due to the war of russia against the crane, which, which led to the extreme prices uh on the steel side in 2020 to 20. 23 is more of a normal here in the, in the drum and european steel context. we have started in the relative fairly well . we've been seeing sort of marketing duration in the 2nd half of the year. and not

only is the effective but, but more, more general tends to and the, the lower results. however, looking at it from it, from his eyes get that perspective. i think it shows that we have been able to, to, to navigate through that to you with great resilience and end of robustness. and hence, i'm, i'm, i, i acknowledge that the year 2023 comes out lower than $22.00. however, it has been a robust and the end of his ending year for us and shows also a good progress on strategies that's good. i gave 2030, which is the strategy around the colonization and secondary to some of those same impediments are hurdles that you faced in 2023 continue into this year, including higher energy costs, higher borrowing costs. how do you see this year coming out to? well, and you, you brought the point out at the start of 2024 being being on the same level, then we left 2023. however, the 1st stiffness also that at least at least leads to a personal positive outlook for the 2nd half of this year. i need to advise that

have come down a quite dramatically. and so we are on the, on the electricity side, on, sorry, on the gas side, we're now on the same level. then we have been before the cobit crisis. and also electricity has come come down substantially compared 220232022. and so we see some, some developments there. however, still this today is the regulatory needs to discuss energy cost, especially for the, for the energy intensive industry in europe. cuz compared to other regions globally, with the wisdom on the high level. so certainly this is something we need to further work on and further discuss about the overall, the overall development through the year. at least give some, some reason to believe that the 2nd half of this year could be, could be stronger also in the interest rate, we're seeing the, the inflation coming down so. so that might be also be movement there. is it fair to say that energy costs are your biggest problem right now? is a company well,

given that we're in the transformation and move away from the c o, 2 intensive for steel making with coal, to green electricity and green hydrogen, of course. and the energy cost, especially on the electricity side, play an important role for us, an increasing role for us hands. also, the, the, the very intensive debate with regulate the, with the policy makers to find a way to find a level playing field, piece of the, our global competitors. yes. you have a major greenville project in the works have references several times called south coast. you receive this past year, significant funding from the german government. does this current situation when we look at energy prices? when we look at borrowing costs? does it make this project more necessary, or is it bound to face some of the same uncertainties? well, 1st of all, i think why do we do this? cuz uh they say they said there's a global believe that the reduction of c, o 2 is necessary. so i'm and the, the steam industry being one of the large amount of c o 2 needs to change. so in

that problem won't go way or that, but that's the problem won't go away. and irrespective of what sort of inputs around it does say, so what we meet when we need to do is to stay firm on our transition and then discuss sort of the, the input parameters as electricity as boring costs, etc, with the respective policy makers and regulatory bodies to find a way to, to, to ensure that in this phase of vulnerability in the transformation, the companies that should stay in, in europe. and this is a political statement, not, not necessarily mine, but, but politically backed, that they also have a chance to, to compete on a global scale. when you look at the us and how they've tried to make climate related, manufacturing more attractive. and then you look at europe, where you did receive a considerable amount of funding, but through much links to your process, i would imagine how do you compare the 2? is it where it should be or, or it does more work,

need to be done in europe. as well, you're absolutely right. the infection reduction act is a um, a strong tool in the us to um, to sort of boost the energy transition and hands also low, low c o 2 industry. and in europe, i would say on the total volume number in terms of, of yours is on the, on the same level in the us. but the process is much more cumbersome as much more. we have a product for this. so yes, we're going to see an increase in demand here. in total volume though it's going to be, it's going to be mine. it's not that this will increase volumes to a large extent. if you look at the total of scale of a, for example, the dots get the with production of, of $6000000.00 tons of steel per year. this will remain a small in a fraction. but yes, this market is back on the agenda. absolutely. unfortunately, have to say, but this is why we are there's been in the past decades, a lot of hand wringing about steel and metals manufacturing in europe and how

competitive it is. we've seen recently the top to the top that group has removed their planning is as announced, it has planning to remove to blast furnaces from the u. k, which has spared a discussion there about the ability to create virgin steele. that ability will be gone from the u. k. after those glass furnaces are removed. how important is that capability? how do you look at this discussion when you see these kinds of announcements as well in, in, in my books and, and also talking to, to industry place and policy makers. i think there's a, there's a clear understanding that based industry should remain in europe and hence also the steel industry. and why is that? cuz we are in the middle of the transformation. i think if we can show that transformation works in europe, is something we can export to other regions. that's one. secondly, what we have seen over the last is, is how important brazilians in the logistical chain is and how sort of,

how big distortions can actually be a smaller ones, even in the, on the logistical side, how big the impact is on the industry side. so having resilience in the, in the supply chain is important to our customers, hence they appreciate us being close by. they appreciate us being an hour and d partner in the same sort of cultural framework. so, so we see a clear ask from our customers to really be a close by and, and have a, a close link to them and not only to disagree, but also from, as i said from an r and d, and from a customer relationship perspective. so, so in my book, it is not only about sort of whether we can, we can import steve from somewhere else. and with a g or political developments that we've seen over the last years that also becomes more, more challenging. and, and you add risk to your, to your business profile, but also sort of with a clear focus, ethically ask for more customers so. so for me based industries, stevens 3 has a clear place in europe. at the same time, we've seen salt,

scripture has diversified away from just traditional steel manufacturing, a bright spot this past year was your technology unit. it makes things like packaging or at least machines that make produce packaging. i believe for beverages in the food industry and this has become very important for you guys, is that fair to say it is kind of diverse vacation. you're not just providing still for autos, for, for potentially, for weapons, but also for consumer products in a way to yeah, right. well, we're very happy with the development of alternative technology unit, especially kids as uh, the delivers those, those parts of packaging machinery for, for beverages. and we've seen sort of that they have been able to grow despite a, a weaker machinery markets, especially outside europe. and so, so our whole concept of being more diversified and planning on different economic cycles played out very nicely and $23.00 and will also play out in $24.00 as caged as had the a record or the intake and $23.00,

which we then with which carries us through $24.00 so we should also expect a strong resolved from a cage as also this year. so. so in this, in this sense, our diversification has played out very nicely and 23 in with certainly also in 24 . we're wrap up by asking you about what's coming in the future. we know this, the suspension of us steel tariffs is set to run out in march 2025. by that time there could be president donald trump back in office. how concerned are you about that situation as well? i think we have a chance here, but it would be in the us and europe to play it would to, to, to further work on the global, sustainable steel agreements, which shows that there are 2 regions that actually want to reduce the c o 2, the footprint and steel industry can play a major role in here. i'm a bit disappointed to have to say that the those discussions have holt, it's just project christmas. last year. i still put some hope into a continuation between those 2 regions this year. and they used to come,

and irrespective of, of which administration will be in office a for the, for the future. i believe that those 2 regions should play together and play along because they have the same similar agenda when it comes to call them neutrality. and common reduction and, and showing this kind of, of coordination incorporation would certainly help both industries the american industry but also ours. so, so i'm, i would rather sort of strength and the boundaries between those. so the, the, the, the connection between those 2 regions then then further separate them. and then finally, while we're on the topic of politics, have to ask you, we've talked a lot about the price of energy and there were german government efforts to lower that price through an industrial prize. they ultimately failed, especially as there has been something of a budget crisis in the country. do you have any thoughts when it comes to the german government's reluctance to take on debt and what that means for industry such as yours as well?

i think what we, what we certainly need to further discuss is, uh the, the difference between sort of spending money here and now consuming as in consumption or investing for us to support that the, the government has given this 1000000000 euro that we add another 1300000000 euro private capital to this 1000000 euro is an investment into future industry in germany and to future jobs in germany into a future tex, a payments in germany. so i, i'd rather call this an investment into the future of this country. then a, a subsidy or anything like this. and i think that's also the way government has to look at those support schemes that they are they, they have handed out and they certainly will also in the future, it is an investment into the structural development of the, of the over of germany, of europe. hence, i would be very much in favor of, of focusing on invest investments also as a country because as i said, it is about jobs. it's about to sort of social welfare. it's about texas and it

makes sense. all right, good luck to see you of, of thoughts. good, thank you very much. thank you for having me. the remedy or risk iowa skin means leanna of the scenario because it's juice can cause hours of intoxication between trying to stand as part of the fixed ritual. generations may open up completely new perspectives in medicine. i was next on d w. the words people have to say to the that's why

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