Siemens-hosted debate: EU chemicals risk deindustrialisation from high energy, CO2 costs

Siemens-hosted debate spotlights industrial decline risk

EU chemical industry leaders are telling policymakers that Europe is losing crucial production capacity and that urgent legal change is needed to stop long-term deindustrialisation. Speaking at a Siemens-organised debate, executives from BASF Polska, Grupa Azoty and Qemetika cite a near 10% loss of capacity in recent years and roughly 9% liquidated over the last three years, with the sector set to shrink about 14% in 2023–24. They warn that surging energy costs, high CO2 charges and heavy regulation are allowing cheaper imports from Asia, the Middle East and the Americas to replace local output, eroding value chains and high‑skill jobs concentrated in small and medium enterprises.

Policy reforms are framed as necessary to restore competitiveness and enable investment in low‑carbon technologies that companies such as Siemens supply. Industry chiefs say many operators have sustained operations by drawing on past profits, but that buffer is fading, signalling permanent plant closures and the loss of experienced personnel unless governments ensure affordable energy, realistic CO2 pricing and investment incentives. Fertiliser producers face acute pressure because gas can account for 75–80% of production costs; executives note U.S. gas prices have at times been four to six times lower than in Europe, creating a structural cost gap that technological fixes alone cannot close without policy change.

For Siemens, the debate underscores growing demand drivers for automation, electrification, energy‑management and decarbonisation solutions across European process industries. The company’s role in convening the discussion signals its interest in shaping a regulatory environment that sustains industrial customers and unlocks capital spending on modernisation. Leaders argue that targeted reforms would preserve innovation capacity in Europe and keep opportunities for suppliers of industrial digitalisation and energy‑efficiency equipment from migrating abroad.

Fertiliser sector specifics add urgency. State‑owned and private producers such as Grupa Azoty and Qemetika stress that persistent high European gas prices make domestic fertiliser production uncompetitive versus producers in the United States, China, India and the Middle East, and that closures would sever upstream and downstream value chains.

Macroeconomic developments also matter for industrial investment. Market attention on U.S. payrolls and CPI releases this week, along with global inflation updates and central bank commentary, is shaping financing costs and business confidence, factors that influence capital expenditure decisions by chemical firms and their technology suppliers like Siemens.