Apple giveth, Apple taketh away.
German battery maker Varta files insolvency applications
11–20 of 63 posts
Re: German battery maker Varta files insolvency applications
#12> Varta lost its key customer in the spring: Apple plans to source the rechargeable "CoinPower" button cells for its AirPods headphones from China in the future. It's another tough loss for German and European industry. Battery tech requires a lot of electricity and German energy prices are simply not competitive. And EU regulations limit how much the German government can subsidize industrial electricity costs. Lots…
The assumption that Europeans can just absorb high energy prices is crazy. Ought to be a national imperative to invest in infrastructure to lower prices.
Lol. Depending on the country and who the buyer is, 50-80% of energy prices are taxes and levies. Those prices have nothing to do with missing infrastructure.
Re: German battery maker Varta files insolvency applications
#13The sentiment seems to be that this is unique to Germany but is there any country that can rival China in manufacturing?
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Re: German battery maker Varta files insolvency applications
#14Re: German battery maker Varta files insolvency applications
#15Re: German battery maker Varta files insolvency applications
#16It's not that bad, they still make money on consumer- and micro batteries. Needs a bit of restructuring.
Re: German battery maker Varta files insolvency applications
#17> Varta lost its key customer in the spring: Apple plans to source the rechargeable "CoinPower" button cells for its AirPods headphones from China in the future. It's another tough loss for German and European industry. Battery tech requires a lot of electricity and German energy prices are simply not competitive. And EU regulations limit how much the German government can subsidize industrial electricity costs. Lots…
The assumption that Europeans can just absorb high energy prices is crazy. Ought to be a national imperative to invest in infrastructure to lower prices.
The problem there is the "national imperative" part imho. All EU politicians are hell-bent on ignoring any kind of market-based solutions, doing everything through regulations and picking winners. So there will never be a proper market equilibrium and therefore prices will always be higher than in places without all those regulatory interventions.
Investment won't help there in any way, because if that investment were worth it, it would already happen because of market forces. If it doesn't happen on its own, then the state (doesn't matter which level) has to do it, which means using tax money, which means that prices will rise. So that state investment will further skew the market equilibrium, putting the EU further behind.
Re: German battery maker Varta files insolvency applications
#18Earlier quoted context omitted.
Schroeder lobbied for Germany to remain dependent on Russian gas. Huge net negative in the long run.
My guess is OP was being sarcastic.
You can never know. People in Germany have wildly divergent takes on what would be good for the country right now and some things that are acceptable to say in mainstream circles seem batshit insane to me.
Re: German battery maker Varta files insolvency applications
#19The sentiment seems to be that this is unique to Germany but is there any country that can rival China in manufacturing?
Definitely not the ones who spent the last two decades being anti-growth and high cost just to suddenly realize they do need to have their own domestic businesses.
Re: German battery maker Varta files insolvency applications
#20Apple giveth, Apple taketh away.
Who's the Andy and who's the Bill in Apple now?