Normally in a prewar situation a country might be increasing industrial production
h/t Rafe Champion
Russia has cut gas supply again, arguing over the German paperwork, after Canada dithered on sending the last turbine back, and Poland reneged on some dividends. Everyone is playing poker with energy, even if some of them didn’t count their cards before they started — and gas is predictably, hitting new record prices. But even before the ante was upped in the latest round, 15% of German industry were already cutting production. Many others are planning to or were considering moving. People are starting to wonder if this might be a permanent loss for the famous German industrial power.
In other news, rather frantic landlords in Germany want to be able to legally restrict temperatures of their tenants units. Someone has got to pay that gas bill, and just asking tenants to take shorter showers doesn’t seem to be working.
Now they tell us:
“Gas is now not only part of Russia’s foreign policy, but possibly also part of the Russian war strategy,” said [Klaus Müller, the president of Germany’s Federal Network Agency, Bundesnetzagentur]
If only someone saw that coming, like say, in 2018, when Germany had plenty of time to make sure energy didn’t become a threat to national security and their industrial base?
Javier Blas says Germany must make big gas reductions
With Nord Stream 1 flowing at just 20% of capacity from July 27, Germany will NOT have enough natural gas to make it throughout the whole winter **unless big demand reductions are implemented**. Berlin will need to activate stage 3 of its gas emergency program
Dutch Gas Futures hits a new record price 780% higher than a year ago:
“The European gas crisis continues to escalate. Gas prices have returned to levels only seen in March as Nord Stream flows dwindle, while the outlook for winter looks bleak for European consumers,” BCS GM said in a note.
German electricity prices for next year are up 400% on a year ago:
German power for delivery next year, the benchmark European price, shot up to a record 388 euros ($394) per megawatt hour on Wednesday — more than 400% higher than a year earlier. It later pared its gains slightly.
Though those slaves to the Australian National Energy Market would say “is that all”. We’re already paying $400 a megawatt hour. We don’t have to wait til next year. And we’re exporting gas too.
And so it begins: According to the DIHK survey of 3,500 companies the energy intensive industries are suffering so much they have to move or shut down.
One of every six German industrial companies feels forced to reduce production due to high energy prices, a survey by the Association of German Chambers of Industry and Commerce, DIHK, showed on Monday.
Nearly a quarter of the companies forced to reduce production have already done so, and another one-quarter are in the process of scaling back production due to sky-high energy prices, according to the survey of 3,500 companies from all sectors and regions in Germany.
The survey also showed that only half of Germany’s industrial companies have covered their annual 2022 gas requirements via contracts. More than a third of industrial firms still have to buy more than 30% of their annual gas needs.
German Landlords want a legal option to restrict temperatures for tenants
Germany’s second largest private real estate group, LEG Immobilien, says “”I believe that in the current war situation, the population in Germany must be made aware that renunciation is now the order of the day,” CEO Lars von Lackum told the Handelsblatt.
Coming soon? Let’s “wear a ski-jacket to dinner” for your country?