Michael Kretschmer, Prime Minister of the Free State of Saxony, is once again committed to Saxon industry. This year's New Year's speech was recorded in the Riesa steelworks.
“It is of course a great honor for us and also a great sign for all our friends. Especially in these currently challenging times for us, it is good to know that our state government here in Saxony and above all our Prime Minister are behind us and are committed to the interests of Saxony's energy-intensive medium-sized businesses," explains Uwe Reinecke, General Manager Feralpi Steel.
Difficult 2023
For Feralpi Stahl, 2023 was a year full of challenges. The enormous increase in electricity prices since the attack on Ukraine is causing problems for the electric steelworks - annual electricity consumption is around 540 gigawatt hours, as much as the consumption of all private households in Dresden combined. The current federal policy decisions provide little to no relief in this regard. Most recently, the federal government canceled the subsidy for network fees, so that they will rise significantly in 2024 and have a negative impact on the production costs at Feralpi Stahl.
Nevertheless, the Italian owning family believes in the German location: the Feralpi Group will invest over 220 million euros in decarbonization over the next few years with the aim of producing green steel in Riesa and securing around 900 industrial jobs in the future.