Riva Hennigsdorf extends downtime for an indefinite period

Hennigsdorf (Riva Stahl)

The Riva Hennigsdorf steel plant in Brandenburg, Germany, continues to operate in a limited mode for an indefinite period. According to rbb24, citing company data, production remains suspended, and about 680 employees are in short-term employment (Kurzarbeit). This is almost the entire staff of the company.

Initially, the short-term employment was scheduled for three months from January 1, 2025, but now it has become indefinite. The reason for this is the ongoing difficult economic conditions that make it impossible to resume full production.

However, the employees received a small positive signal – despite the reduced hours, they will return to the plant at least five days a month to perform auxiliary work, including cleaning.

Thomas Gunther, Mayor of Hennigsdorf, called for swift action at the federal level. He emphasized that the municipality cannot solve the plant’s problems on its own and expressed hope for the introduction of a so-called “transitional electricity tariff” for energy-intensive enterprises.

Brandenburg’s Minister of Economy Daniel Keller also promised to lobby for a reduction in the industrial tariff and network charges. According to him, the company suffers not only from high energy costs but also from dumped steel imports from China. In the future, the situation may be further complicated by new US duties.

The plant’s trade union does not yet see any grounds to predict that the plant will resume operations.

“We depend on a political decision,” said Ronnie Dietrich, chairman of the workers’ council.

As GMK Center reported earlier, the EU steel industry is experiencing a protracted crisis caused by a combination of several negative factors. High energy prices, weak demand for steel and financial difficulties of some companies have led to massive production shutdowns. It is estimated that the total volume of suspended or partially suspended capacity exceeds 9 million tons per year. The largest share of such enterprises belongs to Liberty Steel Group.