Steelworkers March on Berlin as €4.3 Billion Green Transformation Hangs in the Balance

Up to 10,000 people are expected to pour into Völklingen on June 12, while another 1,000 workers will march from Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate to the federal economics ministry. The trigger: a growing fear that the landmark conversion of Saarland’s steel industry to hydrogen-based production is slipping away.

The protest, called jointly by the works councils of Saarstahl and Dillinger Hütte together with the IG Metall union, comes under the slogan “Transformation in danger! Everything is at stake!” What ranks as one of Germany’s most ambitious industrial-decarbonisation projects — a planned 4.3-billion-euro switch to green steel — now faces what labour representatives describe as a critical lack of political backing.

Stephan Ahr, chairman of the Saarstahl works council, warned that a lobby of German steel companies is pressing both the European Union and the federal government to postpone the entire timeline. “That would destroy the entire business model,” Ahr said, adding that the very existence of the Saarland steel industry is on the line. Already the venture carries 1.7 billion euros in debt, and the works councils say further delays would be fatal.

The conflict goes beyond financing. A central point of contention is the system of CO? emission certificates. Brussels is considering changes that critics argue would slow the transition. Herbert Eibensteiner, chief executive of voestalpine, is demanding the continued free allocation of certificates — the current framework for phasing out free allowances by 2034 is incomplete, he says. His company alone expects to spend 230 million euros on certificates this year.

External shocks compound the pressure. In early June the European Commission warned that the Iran war could trigger an energy-price shock, jeopardising up to 1.3 million jobs across the EU. The steel sector would account for an estimated 4,500 of those positions. The chemical industry in eastern Germany has responded by demanding a temporary freeze on CO? price increases.

Technical doubts also hover over the plans. Replacing coal with hydrogen in blast furnaces would require, by some estimates, 70 megatonnes of hydrogen — roughly the entire annual electricity output of the European Union. The International Energy Agency projects that by 2050 only about eight percent of global steel production will rely on electrolysed hydrogen. Competitors such as ArcelorMittal have already pulled out of certain conversion projects in Germany.

Despite these hurdles, the Saarland steelmakers are sticking to their target of launching hydrogen-based production in 2029. But works councils and union leaders say the political and economic headwinds have become so severe that the June protests are unavoidable. Without a clear signal from Berlin and Brussels, they argue, the region’s entire industrial future could be written off.

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