DECRYPTION – For the energy-intensive industry across the Rhine, the gas crisis and soaring prices are a real disaster.
Scanning the three dumpsters each filled with 400 tons of metal imported from Brazil, Jens Lehmann quickly makes his accounts: “In a few months, this raw cast iron went from 500 to 1100 euros per ton. This other, with a different manganese content, saw its price more than double, from 350 euros per ton before the war to 800 euros today.», enumerates the production manager of the Ortrender foundry.
These rudimentary-looking loose parts may end their lives in the oven of the adjacent workshop, but they constitute both the nerve and the weak point of this German PMI, taken by the throat by the soaring price of materials. .
“Times are serious”
In his office, the technical director, Sven Piesker, is even more worried about the prices of his 45 million kilowatt hours, which alone provide 90% of the foundry’s annual consumption. The energy bill has risen from 4 to 8 million euros this year and should record a further jump, to 16 million euros…
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