The Struggle for European Industry – The Editor-in-Chief’s Review

Because they have it all. In Europe, the ministers’ short trip this week is already causing resentment, our Brussels office manager Moritz Koch has just told me: EU diplomats fear that Germany and France are primarily representing the interests of their auto industry in Washington – not the interests of Europe the critic.

Now the “Green Deal Industrial Plan”, which is to be formally adopted by the EU Council at the end of next week, is certainly a good start. It is right to reallocate funds and relax state aid rules in order to speed up the green transition of European industry.

Some actors are actually fomenting panic before US subsidies. They paint gloomy pictures of deindustrialized landscapes in Europe. In doing so, they (of course completely unintentionally) ignore the fact that many European companies will benefit massively from the green transformation of industry, as a recent Handelsblatt research using the example of the wind industry showed.

Behind the “Project Panic” There is a simple calculation: The EU usually tries to alleviate fear with money. So the bigger the panic, the more lavish the EU Commission’s money pots. France warns particularly loudly about the consequences of the IRA. Paris has always pursued its own industrial policy dreams of production quotas and a managed economy. Criticism, on the other hand, comes from Northern Europe, where a liberal economic model and more conservative spending policy are more popular. There are sometimes weeks when you miss Britain’s voice in the EU.

But there is something positive about the whole thing: After all, the dispute between Berlin and Paris suddenly seems to have been forgotten. And that, although friendship actually ends with money.

What else kept us busy this week:

1. Shortly before the end of the week, another diplomatic scandal. After a Chinese spy balloon was sighted over the US state of Montana, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken canceled his planned trip to China this weekend. Just a mistake, Beijing wants to make the angry Americans believe – and downplays the white balloon as a research station. But the damage is done. And the timing could hardly have been worse.

2. The Tank Delivery to Ukraine is a done deal. But how do the heavy devices actually get to their destination? That’s what my colleague Daniel Delhaes asked himself. And his research reveals a problem that has been completely underestimated so far: the German infrastructure would be completely overwhelmed in an emergency with tank transports and, above all, larger troop movements. The reason for this, which will not surprise you, are dilapidated bridges, tunnels that are too small, bottlenecks on the railways – and: too much bureaucracy.

3. The life of Indian billionaire Gautam Adani has long been the ideal material for screenplays: a high school dropout builds up a multi-billion dollar company empire, survives a kidnapping and later almost a terrorist attack that causes a stir around the world. And eventually becomes the third richest man in the world. In the past few weeks, the story has taken a different direction. Because many investors are wondering if behind Adani’s empire is nothing but an unprecedented scam. His company has lost more than $100 billion in market value within a week.

4. An old acquaintance could soon turn up again in Brussels. As the Handelsblatt learned from several high-ranking EU diplomats, Mario Draghi could be about to return to top politics. In Brussels he is being discussed as the head of the 300 billion euro infrastructure initiative “Global Gateway”.

5. The cheerfully chattering one Chatbot ChatGPT from the US company OpenAI not only occupies the world. But above all Microsoft. The group put billions into the young company. Of course, we immediately asked ourselves how great the disruptive power of this technology really is. How do the other tech companies react to the eloquent bot? And who has the best chance of getting big business in this field? But not only these questions are answered by our big weekend title. In it, our technology reporters profile Sam Altman, the man behind the AI ​​revolution. And so much can be revealed: Elon Musk also had a hand in the matter… What does that have to do with you? Our tech team also looked at this and analyzed which industries AI will change the most.

6. One thing is clear, by the way: Artificial intelligence is turning our understanding of progress upside down, as I commented in the Handelsblatt this week. For years it has been said that first robots would take over more and more jobs in factories, then make cashiers superfluous and then truck drivers. And after that, at some point and just maybe, it’s the turn of the knowledge workers. Now it turns out that knowledge workers felt too safe.

7 .Did you know that local carriers stop charging your e-car in the near future or switch off your heat pump by the hour? According to the Federal Network Agency, this may be necessary because the networks are reaching their load limits. As understandable as that is: the proposals have caused a lot of excitement in the past few days.

8. Germany has a new multi-billion chip project. On Wednesday, US chip manufacturer Wolfspeed and automotive supplier ZF announced the construction of a new semiconductor factory in Saarland. However, the chip offensive was bought at a high price: The companies are demanding government funding of more than half a billion euros, as they announced via the Handelsblatt. With the billions it’s such a thing: Do you still remember the Intel factory in Magdeburg? The project, once announced with much fanfare, is still pending. Negotiations on the subsidies are still ongoing. Everything seemed clear at the press conference. The really big chip plants are meanwhile being built elsewhere. Especially in the US.

9. Maybe you’re holding an oat milk cappuccino right now. If you are one of those people who, for reasons of conscience, do without milk, the story of my colleague Katrin Terpitz will surprise you: Because start-ups all over the world are now developing nature-identical milk in bioreactors. Investors have already invested several billion dollars in the young companies. Incidentally, the products are already available in supermarkets in the USA. But I’ll tell you in all honesty: I’m always up for something new. I’ll stick with oat milk anyway. I’m a bit conservative when it comes to milk from the reactor.

Have a nice weekend.

sincerely
Her
Sebastian Mathes
Editor-in-Chief of the Handelsblatt

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