The crisis in Germany’s steel industry deepened in 2025, according to the German Steel Association.
Crude steel production fell to 34.1 million tons, the lowest level since the financial crisis year of 2009, when output stood at 32.7 million tons, the association said in its annual report seen in advance by dpa.
Production was down 8.6% from 2024, the association said, while capacity utilization slipped below the critical threshold of 70%.
Output has now remained well below 40 million tons for a fourth consecutive year. The industry regards that level as the minimum for viable capacity utilization.
“Since 2018, this threshold has been missed six times in total. The sector is therefore stuck at recessionary levels,” the association said.
Steel demand in the German market was also exceptionally weak in 2025. At around 30 million tons on a full-year basis, market supply again fell below the already low average of the past four years, the association said.
The association’s chief executive, Kerstin Maria Rippel, cited structural pressures as the main drivers of the decline.
“Several factors are coming together for the industry: historically weak demand, unabated growth in import pressure and internationally uncompetitive energy prices,” she said.
Around 1 in 3 tons of steel used in the European Union now comes from outside the bloc, while global overcapacity and increasingly aggressive US tariff policies are further exacerbating the situation.
Rippel said the German government and the European Commission begun to respond in 2025, but added that little has been implemented so far. “2026 must become the year of safeguarding industrial locations,” she added.
Germany is Europe’s largest steel producer. The country’s biggest steelmaking hub is Duisburg, home to producers Thyssenkrupp Steel and HKM.
DPA
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