According to a survey, many companies in Germany are reducing their production due to the rise in energy prices.
According to a survey by the German Chamber of Industry and Commerce (DIHK) among 3,500 companies from all sectors and regions, 16 percent of industrial companies are being forced to reduce their production or at least partially give up business areas.
According to their own statements, almost a quarter of them have already implemented this.
Another quarter is on the way.
About half of these companies state that they are planning corresponding steps, as can be seen from the DIHK preliminary evaluation of the annual energy transition barometer.
Difficult prospects for the second half of the year
"These are alarming numbers," said DIHK President Peter Adrian.
They showed the extent to which permanently high energy prices are a burden on the location.
"Many companies have no choice but to close down or relocate production to other locations." According to the evaluation, the energy-intensive economy is particularly hard hit: Here, the values are consistently twice as high as the industry average.
“What we are currently observing in terms of the decline in gas consumption in industry is mainly due to the shutdown of machines and systems.
It doesn't come under improved energy efficiency,” said Adrian.
According to the association, the evaluation also shows that many companies still have to procure a lot of gas for 2022.
Only half of the industrial companies have already covered their needs through contracts.
More than a third still have to buy more than 30 percent of their annual requirement.