{"id":6532,"date":"2023-01-16T13:30:29","date_gmt":"2023-01-16T13:30:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/euromenaenergy.com\/?p=6532"},"modified":"2023-01-16T13:30:29","modified_gmt":"2023-01-16T13:30:29","slug":"6532-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emimer.com\/?p=6532","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"lede__8cfb9125\">\n<address class=\"lede-byline__a846e17f\">\n<div data-testid=\"byline-component\">\n<div class=\"byline-by__590861d7\">By William Wilkes<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/address>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"left-rail__dd66ad55\">\n<div class=\"share-article-button__9ffa97c2\" data-type=\"article\">\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"giftArticleWrapper__50210804\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"authors__c2ab2770\" data-type=\"article\">\n<div class=\"author-data__a75a3bb7\">\n<div>\n<div class=\"follow-button-area__4f452e81\">\n<div>Germany\u2019s industrial heavyweights like BASF SE\u00a0battling an unprecedented energy crunch are seeing signs the worst of the crisis has passed.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<div class=\"main-column__b9c1cc32\">\n<div class=\"body-content\">\n<p class=\"paywall\">Fears of gas rationing after Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine have dissipated for the country\u2019s chemicals, metals and glass makers amid mild temperatures and Germany completing its first liquefied natural gas import terminal. Companies switching to purchasing gas and electricity in the spot market instead of long-term agreements are already reaping the benefits.<\/p>\n<p>Energy prices are significantly lower for us,\u201d said Christopher Profitlich, a spokesman for\u00a0SKW Piesteritz GmbH, which was forced to halt production of key base chemical ammonia last year after gas prices surged. \u201cBoth our machines are working and all of our production staff are working again.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">Germany\u2019s pivot to wean itself off Russian gas is paying off. The government has rushed to tap liquefied natural gas in the market, boosting imports to Europe to a record high and keeping reservoirs close to full through the early winter. The country has also\u00a0fast-tracked\u00a0building LNG terminals.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"left-rail-newsletter paywall\"><\/aside>\n<p class=\"paywall\">\u201cIt looks like the risk of forced gas rationing has gone away this winter,\u201d said Wolfgang Gro\u00dfe Entrup, who heads Germany\u2019s VCI chemical sector association. \u201cBut prices will need to stay lower for much longer for most companies to see a real difference.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"for-you__wrapper paywall\"><\/div>\n<p class=\"paywall\">The surge in gas prices forced many industrial companies to\u00a0curb output, stoking fears for the furture of factories and jobs. Major manufacturers including automaker\u00a0Volkswagen AG\u00a0and chemical giant BASF drew up emergency plans in case of supply disruptions, as Russia effectively stopped direct gas flows since September.<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"price-shock\" class=\"paywall\">Price Shock<\/h3>\n<p class=\"paywall\">While prices have started to wane, they remain significantly above levels seen before Russia started under-delivering gas in the months before its February 2022 invasion. Companies dealing with the price shock said customers in many cases have turned elsewhere, such as sourcing aluminum parts from the US or Asia.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">\u201cThe feeling of apocalypse has lifted,\u201d said Marius Baader, managing director of Aluminium Deutschland which represents aluminum manufacturers, said by phone. \u201cBut there\u2019s no reason to celebrate yet.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">The drag on Europe\u2019s biggest economy has also eased. Economists had predicted a downturn in September after measures of consumer confidence dropped and surveys of purchasing managers signaled a decline in output. Now the broader economy appears to be\u00a0flatlining\u00a0rather than shrinking.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\">\u201cThe currently stable energy supply situation ensures that production is secured for the time being,\u201d said Matthias Frederichs, head of the BV building materials manufacturers\u2019 association. \u201cStill, there can be no talk of relief.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By William Wilkes Germany\u2019s industrial heavyweights like BASF SE\u00a0battling an unprecedented energy crunch are seeing signs the worst of the crisis has passed. Fears of gas rationing after Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6533,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,22],"tags":[40,46,48,50,57,68,76,77,78,79,80,82,86,87,88,90,95,96,98,99,103,107,109,111,112,114,121,123,137,139,146,148,153,159,174,176,181,182,184,187,196,201,202,203,209,217,221,222,229,231,232,233,239,241,244,246,249,250,251,252,256,262,263,266,268,277,279,280,283,285,288,300],"class_list":["post-6532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lng","category-oil-gas","tag-alleviation","tag-aramco","tag-athens","tag-athensenergydialogues","tag-baroudi","tag-carbon","tag-climate","tag-climate-change","tag-climateaction","tag-climatechange","tag-closure-of-nuclear","tag-co2","tag-cyprus","tag-decarbonising","tag-decarbonization","tag-democracy","tag-disputes","tag-doha","tag-east","tag-eastmed","tag-egypt","tag-embargo","tag-emissions","tag-energy","tag-energy-market","tag-energyindustry","tag-europe","tag-european-fuels","tag-gas","tag-gazprom","tag-greece","tag-greenenergy","tag-hydrocarbons","tag-international","tag-lebanon","tag-liquefied-natural-gas","tag-maritime","tag-maritime-boundaries","tag-maritime-disputes","tag-mediterranean","tag-natural-gas","tag-offshore","tag-oil","tag-oil-and-gas","tag-opec","tag-peace","tag-plants","tag-pollution","tag-poverty","tag-power","tag-putin","tag-qatar","tag-renewable-energy","tag-reserves","tag-rosneft","tag-roudi","tag-russia","tag-russia-in-the-european-energy-sector","tag-russian-gas","tag-russian-sanctions","tag-saudi","tag-solar","tag-solar-power","tag-straddling","tag-sustainability","tag-total","tag-trump","tag-turkey","tag-ukrain","tag-unclos","tag-usa","tag-300"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/emimer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/emimer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/emimer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emimer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emimer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6532"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/emimer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6532\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emimer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/emimer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emimer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emimer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}