Scholz Calls on Thyssenkrupp to Keep Jobs, Supports Grid Fee Cap

(Bloomberg) -- German Chancellor Olaf Scholz urged Thyssenkrupp AG to reconsider plans for more job cuts in its steel unit and promised to continue the government’s push to cap grid charges for energy-intensive companies.

Most Read from Bloomberg

“We are promoting the switch to climate-friendly production, including here in the Ruhr region at Thyssenkrupp,” Scholz said Thursday in a speech in Bochum. “But we also combine this with the expectation that production and jobs will be maintained in Germany.”

The chancellor pledged to do everything in his power to introduce a cap for grid charges, though this is unlikely to get the required parliamentary approval before Germany’s snap election in February.

Scholz’s governing coalition no longer has a majority in parliament after he fired his finance minister, Christian Lindner of the Free Democrats, leaving him in a two-party coalition with the Greens.

Scholz said a cap on grid fees, which also has the backing of Greens Economy Minister Robert Habeck, would create “the security that our companies need to invest and produce” and help protect jobs. “This year, we can therefore cap the network fees if everyone goes along with it,” he added.

Thyssenkrupp’s steel unit plans to reduce its labor force by about 40% this decade, a move that would shrink a business that’s lost billions of euros to a global steel glut and rising energy prices.

The division on Monday proposed cutting 5,000 jobs while moving another 6,000 positions off the books by selling operations or moving people to external service providers. Thyssenkrupp aims to lower personnel costs by about 10% on average over the coming years.

--With assistance from William Wilkes.

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

©2024 Bloomberg L.P.