Agency Report –
German Vice Chancellor Lars Klingbeil called for a business summit to discuss lower energy prices for the country’s embattled steel sector, in remarks to Germany’s Funke Media Group released on Sunday.
“We have to talk to the company heads and works councils about how we can boost the steel industry, for example by lower energy prices,” said Klingbeil, who serves as finance minister in Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s centrist coalition.
A sensible solution also had to be found on steel in the tariff conflict with the United States, he said, noting that the US relied on high-quality German steel, for example in its aviation sector.
At the beginning of June, US President Donald Trump doubled tariffs on the import of steel and aluminium to 50%, and imposed tariffs on hundreds of products containing steel or aluminium, including motorcycles, window frames, sports equipment, cranes and railway trucks.
These tariffs do not fall under an agreement struck between the European Union and the US administration. Trump has focused on steel and aluminium with a view to boosting production of these commodities in the US.
The EU steel sector has been hit in recent years by cheap imports from China, which is accused of dumping its excess production, and more recently by the Trump tariffs. Political leaders have moved to protect domestic production of what they see as a strategic commodity.
