German steel boss (Thyssen-Krupp) calls for “German raw materials corporation”

[Hannah Bell]

Ekkehard Schulz, the outgoing chairman of the steel group ThyssenKrupp, has called for the setting up of a “German raw materials corporation” to counteract skyrocketing prices and the growing shortage of raw materials on the world market.

The aim of the “German raw materials corporation” is to support the German steel industry in the global procurement of raw materials, particularly iron ore and coal. The umbrella company is to be involved in mining projects or the auction of mining rights. At the same time, it would be open to other industries that need products such as aluminium, copper, lead or zinc.

ThyssenKrupp Steel, the largest German steel group, has been heavily affected by the soaring prices of the mineral ores needed for steel production. The three major international ore suppliers, Vale, Rio Tinto and BHP, have enforced a change in the pricing system for iron ore.

Since the spring of 2010, the former practice of annual bargaining over prices has been replaced by quarterly price negotiations. This has resulted in price increases of up to 90 percent, reducing the profit margins of steel producers and complicating their bookkeeping.

In an interview with the manager-magazin, Schulz referred to the current situation in the commodity markets: “The mining giants dictate to us their prices, the Chinese are buying up the entire world, and speculators can be found everywhere in the commodity markets—in my opinion the term threatening underestimates the situation...” Schulz demanded a pan-European strategy for raw materials and argued that the EU had failed to challenge the “raw material imperialism of the Chinese” and establish the necessary political relations with Africa. “We are simply leaving the field to the Chinese”, he complained, and asked, “Why should Africa be left to the Chinese..?”

The formation of cartels and monopolies, aimed at both the procurement of raw materials and the domination of markets, was a key feature of the imperialist stage of capitalism, which in 1914 and 1939 resulted in two world wars.

In his analysis "Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism," Vladimir I. Lenin wrote: “Monopolies have stimulated the seizure of the most important sources of raw materials, especially for the basic and most highly cartelised industries in capitalist society: the coal and iron industries. The monopoly of the most important sources of raw materials has enormously increased the power of big capital, and has sharpened the antagonism between cartelised and non-cartelised industry.”

Lenin then noted the link to the outbreak of war in 1914, which “was imperialist (that is, an annexationist, predatory, war of plunder) on the part of both sides; it was a war for the division of the world, for the partition and repartition of colonies and spheres of influence of finance capital, etc.”

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/dec2010/germ-d31.shtml

[Selatius]

1. You cannot wage a war if you have no base of mineral ore resources from which to draw from.

From the ore, you can produce the metals needed to manufacture the machines of war, and if it is a long and protracted war, it becomes a resource from which to resupply depleted units with fresh equipment. Nations that don't have good access to mineral ores can still develop powerful military forces, but they are not in a position to wage a full-scale war for a lengthy period of time, much less a true world war-level event. They simply would not be able to absorb the losses for lack of being able to rebuild and replace the equipment.

[xchrom]

2. wow -- very interesting read. nt

[wilt the stilt]

3. For what it's worth

I believe that Germany does think of it's country as a whole. How this affects the entire country is important to the heads of corporations. In America we only think of ourselves and don't care about the whole so that is why our industries and our middle class is suffering. The business leaders and the government is very short sighted.

[Starry Messenger]

4. recommend.