German Steel Federation calls for urgent competitiveness measures

Germany’s crude steel production continued to decline in October, falling 3% year-on-year to around 3.1 million tonnes, according to new data from the German Steel Federation (Wirtschaftsvereinigung Stahl).

For the first ten months of 2025, output dropped around 10% to 28.5 million tonnes, following an already extremely weak 2024. This means German crude steel production is set to end 2025 at recession-level volumes — a pattern visible since 2019.

Blast furnace route particularly affected

Production via the blast furnace–basic oxygen furnace route fell by 12.4% to 19.5 million tonnes so far this year. Electric-arc-furnace producers — many of them medium-sized companies relying on scrap and electricity — are also reporting significant output losses due to high power costs and subdued demand.

“The production level shows how deep the crisis is”

Kerstin Maria Rippel, Managing Director of the German Steel Federation, said the October figures underline the urgent need for political action ahead of the 2nd Mittelstand Steel Summit in Berlin on 21 November.

She stated: “The extremely weak steel production in 2025 shows how deep the crisis is, in which we find ourselves as an economy overall and as a steel industry in particular. For our medium-sized EAF companies, high electricity prices, massive import pressure and extremely weak demand have long since become an existential threat.”

Federation demands relief on energy costs and imports

Rippel stressed that the upcoming summit must “actively address” the structural disadvantages facing steel SMEs. She reiterated that competitiveness hinges on significantly lower electricity prices: industrial power costs should range between €30–60/MWh ‘all-in’, including grid fees, levies and surcharges.

She welcomed the federal government’s efforts to improve electricity cost compensation and to subsidise transmission grid charges, calling the latter “the right and necessary step”. However, she emphasised that the industry is now waiting for movement from Brussels: “Electricity price compensation must be rapidly further developed. The state aid framework needs to be put back on the table in the medium term — only then can we achieve genuinely competitive electricity prices for energy-intensive industries on the path to climate neutrality.”

Source: WV Stahl, Photo: Fotolia