Smeltery contract

The smelter contract is an agreement concluded in 1968 and extended in 1985 , which provided for the forecasted hard coal demand in Germany to be covered by domestic hard coal until the year 2000. The difference between the domestic cost recovery price and the world market price should largely be borne by the state.

history

After the Second World War , German coal mining recovered very quickly. Within a few years, hard coal production reached 103 million tons in 1950. A few years after the founding of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), the price control for coal was lifted by the ECSC in 1956. Cheap imported coal flowed into the European and German markets, mainly from America. The coal shortage of the years before quickly resulted in an oversupply of coal. As a result, the stockpiles of the German mines increased enormously within a short time. While the stockpiles of coal and coke in 1957 were 753,000 tons, by the end of August 1958 they had risen to over 10 million tons. This year, party shifts were carried out again in the German coal mining industry. As early as 1959, the stockpiles totaled 11 million tons of hard coal and 5.8 million tons of coke . At the beginning of 1959, following massive pressure from the mining associations, the German government introduced import quotas and a coal tariff on third-country coal. In 1969 the Ruhrkohle AG was founded and the smelter contract was concluded.

The contract

The smelter contract obligated the German steel industry to only meet its need for hard coal from German mines. In addition, the German mines were guaranteed a purchase volume of 20 million tons of coking coal by the year 2000. The contract regulates the customer-supplier relationships between the steel industry and mining for a period of 20 years. The contract smelters were obliged by the contract to cover their needs for coking coal through RAG. The condition for this was that the financing should come at a competitive price. Since the other steel producers who were not bound by the smelter contract could supply themselves with inexpensive coking coal on the world market, the difference between the world market price and the price for RAG coal was offset by the state coking coal subsidy. As a result, the smelters bound by the smelter contract were placed as if they had free access to the world market. However, there were certain restrictions, so so-called sintered fuels were not included in the price regulation. For several years there were also deductibles for coal and steel, which meant that the difference between the world market price and the RAG coal price was not fully offset by the coking coal subsidy. For this reason, the modalities between RAG and the steel industry and the public sector had to be renegotiated every year. Over the years, this has led to tension between the contracting parties.

Follow-up regulations

In the course of 1982 there was a dramatic collapse in coking coal sales to the steel industry. As a result, the stockpiles rose to almost 26 million tons of hard coal. In the coal round of 1983, the first measures to reduce production capacities were decided. In 1985 a follow-up regulation to the smelter contract was concluded. In this follow-up regulation, which was valid from 1989 to 2000, significant areas of conflict between the contracting parties could be eliminated. In the additional contract it was agreed that the price regulation should now apply to all purchases of the contractual smelters from RAG, including sintered fuels and injected coal. At the start of the contract, the amount of the subsidy was only negotiated between the steel producers and the public sector, and the deductible for the steel producers was no longer applicable at the start of the contract. In return, RAG was able to cancel partial quantities of deliveries. The smelter contract ended in 1999 and was replaced by individual contracts between RAG and the steel producers.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Otfried Jarren, Rüdiger Bendlin, Thorsten Grothe, Dieter Stroll: The introduction of local radio in North Rhine-Westphalia. Leske + Buderich, Opladen 1993, ISBN 978-3-8100-1091-9 , p. 300.
2. ↑ ^{a b} Joachim Huske: The coal mine in the Ruhr area. 3. Edition. Self-published by the German Mining Museum, Bochum 2006, ISBN 3-937203-24-9 .
3. ↑ ^{a b} Jürgen Klute: Structural change and industrial policy in the Ruhr area. Online ( Memento of the original from June 9, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (accessed June 9, 2016). 
4. ↑ ^{a b c} RAG central area communication: retrospectives - insights - insights. BOSS Druck und Medien GmbH, Kleve 1996 ISBN 3-7739-1434-2 .
5. ↑ Thomas Gregarek: Why subsidies for hard coal mining? University of Potsdam ( Memento of the original from January 31, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (last accessed June 9, 2016).  
6. ^ Wirtschaftsvereinigung Bergbau eV: The mining manual. 5th edition, Verlag Glückauf GmbH, Essen, 1994, ISBN 3-7739-0567-X .
7. ↑ COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES: Commission decision of 07/05/2002 approving the acquisition of control over Saarbergwerke AG and Preussag Anthrazit GmbH by RAG Aktiengesellschaft. Online (PDF; 211 kB) (last accessed on June 9, 2016).