East German textile industry seeks equitable energy policy

09 Jan '14

2 min read

The climbing energy costs are adversely affecting the globally competitive textile producers in East Germany in an unreasonable manner, and the Government should come up with a small and medium enterprise (SMEs) friendly energy policy, said Betram Hofer, chief executive of the South-East German Textile and Clothing Industry (VTI), at the recently held VTI press conference in the city of Chemnitz in the German state of Saxony.

According to a statement issued by VTI, Mr. Hofer said that the state-imposed renewable energy costs rose from 3.6 cents to 5.6 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh) approximately in 2013, and is expected to further increase to 6.3 cents kWh in 2014.

The rising energy costs create undue burden on the textile and clothing entrepreneurs especially those who are small and medium entrepreneurs, he added.

Mr. Hofer said the energy transition must be financed through the state budget and the industry also requires a European scale comparable framework conditions for energy usage, water and waste water limits in order to function at full capacity.

The VTI official said that during the first half of 2013 significant losses were incurred in the East German textile and clothing industry which was attributed to the sales crisis in the European area, but in the recent months demand is picking up gradually and East German textile and clothing manufacturers are optimistic for 2014.

According to VTI, In East Germany, there are about 260 textile and clothing companies employing about 16,000 directly, with 12,000 of them in the state of Saxony and 2,500 in Thuringia.

About 45 percent of the region’s textile production is technical textiles for various applications, while home textiles and apparel account for 30 percent and 25 percent share, respectively.

Fibre2fashion News Desk - India

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