BERLIN (dpa-AFX) - For weeks, the traffic light coalition has been struggling to relieve companies of high electricity prices - in industry, worries are growing. "We are losing companies, we are losing value creation," said Siegfried Russwurm, president of the Federation of German Industries (BDI), at a BDI climate congress in Berlin on Tuesday. Politicians need to get into gear, he added. Germany, as an industrial and export nation, will continue to be "left behind" in international competition if it continues as it is. The business community has been calling for relief for a long time.

At the congress, German Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) campaigned for a temporarily limited and state-subsidized "bridge electricity price" for energy-intensive companies, which is controversial within the coalition. He sees movement in the debate. Habeck put the chances at 50-50 that a bridge electricity price would come about. The important thing, he said, is that energy-intensive companies continue to have confidence in Germany as a business location and invest.

The Greens and the SPD parliamentary group are in favor of an industrial electricity price, Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) is skeptical, and the FDP is against it. The FDP wants a reduction in the electricity tax. In response, Habeck said he would prefer both an industrial electricity price and a reduction in the electricity tax. The latter, however, would not benefit energy-intensive companies, because they do not pay electricity tax. Habeck also pointed to limited financial resources in the federal budget.

Scholz will meet with industry representatives on Wednesday for a "chemical summit" at the Chancellor's Office. Expectations are also high in the chemical industry that the German government will quickly make decisions to ease the burden on energy prices.

The head of Wacker Chemie, Christian Hartel, spoke at the BDI Climate Congress of a "catastrophic" slump in production and weak demand - the German chemical industry had further cut production in the second quarter for cost reasons. Hartel said energy prices in Germany are three to five times higher than in the U.S. or China. "We are being passed through." He also said Wacker is questioning whether it can still produce in Germany.

BDI President Russwurm had already issued an urgent warning on Monday against a migration of companies abroad. The value added, operations and jobs of large parts of the energy-intensive industry at their locations in Germany are in concrete danger. Industrial production is either disappearing or being relocated abroad. There is nothing to relativize about the need to fight climate change vigorously. Industry wants to achieve climate targets, he said. "But there's one thing we don't want: to fall by the wayside, or to put it more clearly: to go under because we lose competitiveness and lack any reliable basis for planning."

The chairwoman of the German Trade Union Confederation, Yasmin Fahimi, said on Tuesday, "Competitive electricity prices are the prerequisite for expanding private investment in decarbonization. Without this, there is also no climate protection." She added that the German government must now quickly set the right course to avoid creeping deindustrialization./hoe/DP/nas