On yesterday’s Steel Action Day, the Saarhütten Association (Verband der Saarhütten, VDS) joined forces with employees and the state government to appeal to the German government for faster subsidies in the course of the green steel transformation in Saarland.
The VDS is an association of companies in the steel industry in the Saarland as well as Buderus Edelstahl GmbH in Hesse and Badische Stahlwerke GmbH in Baden-Württemberg. Together with the employees – around 13,000 people in the Saarland – they took to the streets on yesterday’s Steel Action Day to campaign for the preservation of the Saarland steel industry.
Heiko Maas, President of the Saarhütten Association, emphasized: “The Saarland steel industry is on a direct path to climate-neutral steel production. However, it needs support in the green transformation of its steel production. We are running out of time.
We need quick decisions at the political level now, be it on the introduction of a bridge electricity price or on promoting the transformation of steel production in the Saarland. We want to do both: produce climate-neutral steel and secure people’s jobs through a sustainable and competitive steel industry”
For the Saarland, it’s about more than just the steel industry. The transformation of the Saarland steel industry will create the conditions for building a regional and also cross-border hydrogen economy. Investments in the production of hydrogen and a hydrogen infrastructure will only take place if there is sufficient demand for hydrogen in the region. This is guaranteed by the Saarland steel industry. It is thus playing a key role in driving forward the development of a regional and European hydrogen economy.