Inserts:

00:03 Report / Dan Hirschfeld
00:43 David Wittwer / Energy Buyer Europe, Novelis Aluminium
02:04 Angelika El-Noshokaty / Managing Director of Aluminium Germany
03:04 Carsten Franzke / CEO of SKW Stickstoffwerke Piesteritz

Script:

0:02

In this furnace, aluminium scraps are melted down at 700 degrees Celsius.

It takes hours.

0:11
Then, tons of the silver-shining liquid metal flow down long troughs into molds.

They cool down and become enormous aluminium bars.

0:23
The furnaces are gas-powered.. and the price of natural gas has risen sharply since the beginning of the Iran war.

And that's now a problem for aluminium manufacturers in Germany and Europe. In addition to high energy prices, they also face rising costs for climate protection levies, such as CO2 emissions-certificates.

0:42 +++SOT David Wittwer, Energy Buyer Europe, Novelis Aluminium+++
"This is clearly a competitive disadvantage in the global market. Our electricity prices are about twice as high as other regions in the world. Our gas prices are also twice as high, and in some cases, still significantly higher even after the crisis. It's a disadvantage for energy-intensive industries that cannot we can't easily compensate."

1:06
Novelis' aluminium recycling plant in Eastern Germany is the largest in Europe and the second-largest worldwide. 400,000 tons of aluminium scrap are melted down here each year.

Despite the high energy costs, recycling is still significantly cheaper than producing new primary aluminum from bauxite ore.

1:29 +++SOT David Wittwer, Energy Buyer Europe, Novelis Aluminium+++
"Using scrap, we use 95 percent less energy and produce 95 percent fewer emissions than using aluminium-bauxite."

1:38
Without a sufficient supply of old beverage cans or aluminium car parts, producing aluminium would require roughly 20 times more energy, including expensive natural gas.

China, as well as some other countries in Asia and Africa have now restricted the export of aluminum scrap. The EU is considering doing so. Angelika El-Noshokaty (pronounced: No-scho-ka-ti) of the German Aluminium Association is worried.

2:07 ((SOT Angelika El-Noshokaty, Managing Director of Aluminium Germany))
"Currently there's a lot of scrap aluminium that flows out of Europe. We're talking about 1.3 million tons a year lost to Europe, which we could actually use in the recycling process. // We want to ensure that this important raw material remains in Eruope because it's important for our resilience." 

((+++SOT Angelika El-Noshokaty, Hauptgeschäftsführerin Branchenverband Aluminium Deutschland+++))
((„Wir haben derzeit die Situation, dass sehr viele Schrotte aus Europa abfließen. Das sind 1,3 Millionen Tonnen pro Jahr, die Europa verloren gehen, die wir im Recycling-Prozess nutzen könnten. /// Wir möchten sicherstellen, dass dieser wichtige Rohstoff bei uns in Europa bleibt, weil er für unsere Resilienz wichtig ist.“))

2:23
This white-yellow powder is also in short supply since the beginning of the war: it's nitrogen fertilizer for agriculture. The most important raw material for fertilizer production is natural gas.

The Piesteritz nitrogen plant is the largest producer in Germany. Four million tons of fertilizer, as well as basic chemicals such as ammonia and nitric acid, are produced here annually. Without this fertilizer, modern agriculture would be impossible.

2:50
High gas prices and CO2 taxes in Germany have long been causing problems for CEO Carsten Franzke. Last year, he was even forced to temporarily reduce production.

Franzke asks that politicians ensure the production of essential basic chemicals in Europe.

3:11 +++SOT Carsten Franzke, CEO of SKW Stickstoffwerke Piesteritz+++
"China and India, for example, are doing that.. also Russia, they have imposed an export ban on fertilizers. To maintain their own food supply. And for my own resilience, for my own food security, I urgently need a regional supply chain here locally."

3:32
The growing push for curbing imports goes beyond fertilizers and aluminum, touching other resources where Europe is dependent on international supply chains.