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German battery maker Varta files insolvency applications

reuters.com

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Re: German battery maker Varta files insolvency applications

#51

Post by k_g_b_ »

sajithdilshan wrote: post #24
petcat wrote: post #3

> 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…

I think it's a self made crisis. They turned off their atomic power plants in the middle of an energy crisis (even the current German government admitted that it was a mistake: https://clashreport.com/world/articles/germanys-merz-admits-... ) and now importing far expensive natural gas from middle east and USA

Germany's use of gas has basically nothing to do with nuclear energy. It's used for gas peakers (which are for now and were needed, whether some % of electricity is provided by nuclear plants or not), heating (which has/had nothing to do with nuclear plants) and heavy industry like steel (which wouldn't be able to replace their gas usage any easier with nuclear than with renewables).

The current government is full of hardcore ideological incompetents captured by fossil fuel interests that wouldn't recognize a free market if it threw € bills in their face. Merz in particular can "admit" whatever he wants, it was an uninformed talking point to get a few points on media as a response to a small time-limited news wave on nuclear - nothing else to it. He's easily triggered.

The previous government extended the runtime of the shutdown-ready plants because of the energy crisis. Shutting off the last few hasn't had any significant impact on industrial energy prices https://www.smard.de/page/en/topic-article/5892/216044/indus...

Re: German battery maker Varta files insolvency applications

#52

Post by ZeroGravitas »

sajithdilshan wrote: post #24
petcat wrote: post #3

> 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…

I think it's a self made crisis. They turned off their atomic power plants in the middle of an energy crisis (even the current German government admitted that it was a mistake: https://clashreport.com/world/articles/germanys-merz-admits-... ) and now importing far expensive natural gas from middle east and USA

The German government guy "admitting it was a mistake" hates wind turbines and claims they will all be replaced in a decade or two by nuclear fusion.

An absolute loon when it comes to energy. It is mind blowing that he is being touted as the voice of reason.

Re: German battery maker Varta files insolvency applications

#53

Post by sajithdilshan »

k_g_b_ wrote: post #51
sajithdilshan wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's a self made crisis. They turned off their atomic power plants in the middle of an energy crisis (even the current German government admitted that it was a mistake: https://clashreport.com/world/articles/germanys-merz-admits-... ) and now importing far expensive natural gas from middle east and USA

Germany's use of gas has basically nothing to do with nuclear energy. It's used for gas peakers (which are for now and were needed, whether some % of electricity is provided by nuclear plants or not), heating (which has/had nothing to do with nuclear plants) and heavy industry like steel (which wouldn't be able to replace their gas usage any easier with nuclear than with renewables). The current government is full of…

You do know that the gap left by shutting off the nuclear power plants are now being filled by fossil fuel which makes the pricing quite volatile due to geo political situation in middle east. Also other not only Germans, but also other European countries had to pay a price as well for the shutdown of the power plant (https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20241220-sweden-sees-r...)

> The current government is full of hardcore ideological incompetents captured by fossil fuel interests

I could argue the same about the previous Green government, that it was an incompetent, eco terrorist extremist government where the shutdown of the power plants were spearheaded by an idiotic children book writer who has no idea about energy market.

Re: German battery maker Varta files insolvency applications

#54

Post by sajithdilshan »

ZeroGravitas wrote: post #52
sajithdilshan wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's a self made crisis. They turned off their atomic power plants in the middle of an energy crisis (even the current German government admitted that it was a mistake: https://clashreport.com/world/articles/germanys-merz-admits-... ) and now importing far expensive natural gas from middle east and USA

The German government guy "admitting it was a mistake" hates wind turbines and claims they will all be replaced in a decade or two by nuclear fusion. An absolute loon when it comes to energy. It is mind blowing that he is being touted as the voice of reason.

Not sure if that would happen in a decade or two, more like in five decades or so, but totally make sense. If we have fusion reactors, then why would anyone spend money on an inferior technology like wind turbine?

Re: German battery maker Varta files insolvency applications

#55

Post by k_g_b_ »

sajithdilshan wrote: post #53
k_g_b_ wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Germany's use of gas has basically nothing to do with nuclear energy. It's used for gas peakers (which are for now and were needed, whether some % of electricity is provided by nuclear plants or not), heating (which has/had nothing to do with nuclear plants) and heavy industry like steel (which wouldn't be able to replace their gas usage any easier with nuclear than with renewables). The current government is full of…

You do know that the gap left by shutting off the nuclear power plants are now being filled by fossil fuel which makes the pricing quite volatile due to geo political situation in middle east. Also other not only Germans, but also other European countries had to pay a price as well for the shutdown of the power plant ( https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20241220-sweden-sees-r... ) > The current government is full…

I don't know that because it is utterly untrue, as is easily verified by looking up plenty of available data in the German electricity mix - it's replaced by the growth in renewables, fossil fuels have continuously shrunk https://strom-report.com/electricity-mix-germany/.

If you don't want to out yourself as a hardcore ideologue you should argue with data instead of political talking points.

Congratulations on picking up far right "children's book author" talking points! I'd say that is more of a worthwhile economic activity than whatever Merz has done in his life. If you can't recognize the self-serving ideology of Germany's "conservatives", I do have some perpetual micro-nuclear reactors to sell you.

Re: German battery maker Varta files insolvency applications

#56

Post by gib444 »

signatoremo wrote: post #50
gib444 wrote: post #25

If this were a US company with better PR, I wonder if it would have read more like: "Varta Boldy Undertakes Strategic Restructuring to Unlock Value and Sharpen Business Focus"

In a thread about Europe’s (lack of) competitiveness and you still manage to make fun of the US on something unrelated. You really need to work on your self reflection.

You need to work on asking clarifying questions and not assuming a meaning. You're embarrassing yourself.

Re: German battery maker Varta files insolvency applications

#57

Post by [deleted] »

gbil wrote: post #9
petcat wrote: post #3

> 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…

You forgot the new US tarrif because of "forced labor"! At least in China things are much better on labor side! Sorry couldn't resist....

[deleted]

Re: German battery maker Varta files insolvency applications

#58

Post by dizhn »

Incipient wrote: post #21
mertbio wrote: post #10

The sentiment seems to be that this is unique to Germany but is there any country that can rival China in manufacturing?

Varta has moved (outsourced?) pretty much all consumer batteries we get in Australia to China.

I usually get the cheapest motorcycle battery I can find and Varta ones were always priced almost like the noname Chinese ones too.

Re: German battery maker Varta files insolvency applications

#59

Post by tim333 »

gbil wrote: post #9
petcat wrote: post #3

> 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…

You forgot the new US tarrif because of "forced labor"! At least in China things are much better on labor side! Sorry couldn't resist....

It's all kind of ridiculous, that stuff.

Re: German battery maker Varta files insolvency applications

#60

Post by tim333 »

mertbio wrote: post #10

The sentiment seems to be that this is unique to Germany but is there any country that can rival China in manufacturing?

The US does surprisingly well - output $2.9 tr vs $4.8 tr for China. More for high tech stuff like Boeing and Tesla.

https://www.engineering.com/u-s-manufacturing-hit-2-91t-valu...

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