Latest news with #Essen-based
Business Mayor
20-05-2025
- Business
- Business Mayor
Trump allows New York offshore wind project after apparent gas pipeline compromise with state
File: The wind farm in the Baltic Sea 35 kilometres northeast of Rügen is a joint venture of the Essen-based energy group Eon and the Norwegian shareholder Equinor. Bernd Wüstneck | Picture Alliance | Getty Images Norwegian energy company Equinor will resume construction on its offshore wind farm in New York, after the Trump administration lifted its order to halt work on the project. Empire Wind 1 will be the first offshore wind project to deliver electricity directly to New York City. The Interior Department under the Biden administration approved the project last year after Equinor signed a lease issued by the department in 2017. But Interior Secretary Doug Burgum ordered construction on Empire Wind to stop on April 16, alleging the Biden administration rushed the project's approval 'without sufficient analysis or consultation among the relevant agencies as relates to the potential effects.' The stop-work order had raised fears among investors that the White House might target other wind projects that had already been permitted and approved. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said Monday evening that Burgum and President Donald Trump agreed to lift the stop-work order and allow the project to move forward 'after countless conversations with Equinor and White House officials.' Empire Wind supports 1,500 union jobs, Hochul said. Equinor said it aims to execute planned installation activities this year and minimize the impact of the stop-work order in order to reach its goal of starting commercial operations in 2027.
Reuters
24-03-2025
- Business
- Reuters
RWE typifies corporate Europe's investment dilemma
LONDON, March 24 (Reuters Breakingviews) - As boardroom tussles go, activist Elliott Investment Management's campaign at RWE ( opens new tab looks relatively collegial. The UK arm of the U.S. activist investor on Monday disclosed, opens new tab a 5% stake in the 24-billion-euro German energy giant, and cheered its recent decision, opens new tab to scale back capital expenditures while nudging CEO Markus Krebber towards bigger share buybacks. The only room for disagreement seems to be on the timing, which gets at a more fundamental problem for European bosses: how much store to set in a nascent public and private investment boom? RWE, like other continental companies, increasingly seems to sense that the marginal euro may be better spent at home rather than in the volatile Unites States. That's especially true for green-focused companies like the Essen-based electricity generator, whose stateside renewable projects now face a more hostile political environment under President Donald Trump. Boss Krebber last week cut his 2025 to 2030 investment programme by 10 billion euros, or around 25%, which included reducing future capital deployed to U.S. wind power. The question is what to do with the money saved. Elliott wants Krebber to 'significantly increase and accelerate' an existing 1.5-billion-euro buyback programme. In purely financial terms, that makes sense: RWE trades at 6 times forward EBITDA, using LSEG Datastream figures, compared with 7 times and 9 times respectively for peers Orsted ( opens new tab and Iberdrola ( opens new tab. Repurchasing equity at a discounted price creates value for shareholders and comes with less risk than splurging on new capital-intensive energy projects. Yet Krebber also has a good reason to wait. Friedrich Merz, the Christian Democrats leader who is busily forming the next German government, has earmarked a fifth of a planned 500-billion-euro infrastructure fund for climate and economic transformation. A good chunk of that money could in theory boost domestic renewable champions like RWE. Committing to new mega-buybacks before the plans have even been hatched may be premature – and might send the wrong message to investment-hungry politicians in Berlin. The saving grace is that RWE may be able to have its cake and eat it. Doubling, or even tripling, the buyback would still leave billions available for future capital expenditures at home, especially if Krebber succeeds with other cash-boosting plans like a business disposal and farming out bits of new projects to partners. The RWE CEO has also raised his targeted internal rates of return on future investments to 8.5% from 8%, which should help to calm Elliott's nerves about spending. Yet the debate nonetheless exemplifies an issue that CEOs in the defence, manufacturing and energy sectors will increasingly have to grapple with in the coming months. European capitals are making big investment promises, but specific new projects are so far thin. In the meantime, cash-hungry shareholders will keep circling. Follow @jenjohn_, opens new tab on X CONTEXT NEWS Elliott Advisors, the UK arm of the $73 billion U.S. activist hedge fund Elliott Investment Management, on March 24 disclosed a roughly 5% stake in German energy group RWE. The investor run by Paul Singer said that it welcomed RWE's decision to reduce its future investment programme by 10 billion euros or 25%, but wished for more clarity over shareholder returns including stock buybacks. RWE's shares rose by roughly 2% to 32.8 euros, as of 1123 GMT on March 24. For more insights like these, click here, opens new tab to try Breakingviews for free.
Reuters
05-03-2025
- Business
- Reuters
Evonik sees broadly stable 2025 core earnings, with a rise in 1st quarter
March 5 (Reuters) - German chemicals group Evonik Industries ( opens new tab on Wednesday forecast 2025 core earnings broadly in line with last year's figure and analysts' expectations, and said the first quarter result would rise from a year earlier. Strict cost discipline and good volume development at its speciality additives business have so far helped Evonik to overcome the difficult market environment. "We advanced during the economic and political headwinds of last year," CEO Christian Kullmann said in a statement. The Essen-based company sees adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of between 2.0 billion and 2.3 billion euros ($2.1 billion and 2.4 billion) this year, compared with 2.07 billion euros in 2024. Analysts' median forecast for 2024 adjusted EBITDA was 2.08 billion euros, which they were expecting to rise to 2.15 billion in 2025, a poll compiled by Vara Research, opens new tab showed. For the first quarter of 2025, the group expects adjusted EBITDA above the 522 million euros it had reported last year. Aiming to slim down its business, Evonik in December announced the biggest restructuring programme in its history, which might reduce its workforce by more than a fifth. "We promised to carry out the reorganization in a socially responsible manner and we are keeping our word," the company said, adding the reorganization and job cuts were advancing according to the plan. The German sites in Marl and Wesseling will be carved out later this year, which should help Evonik focus on its chemical businesses, it said. As part of the restructuring, the speciality chemicals maker also implemented the split of its former Technology & Infrastructure unit into separate functions on January 1, it added.
Bloomberg
12-02-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
German Coal Operator Sues Regulator Over Plants' Standby Status
German utility Steag GmbH said it's suing the country's energy regulator for putting its coal-fired power plants on standby instead of switching them off entirely. The lawsuit comes after the Federal Network Agency ordered Essen-based Steag to keep the units in a so-called grid reserve to cover electricity shortages. The utility lodged a complaint against the agency last year, saying the stations are unprofitable as they can't participate in the daily power market.
Times of Oman
11-02-2025
- Business
- Times of Oman
Trump imposes 25% tariffs on steel, aluminium
Washington DC: US President Trump signed executive orders for new tariffs of 25% on all steel and aluminium imports into the US. "Today I'm simplifying our tariffs on steel and aluminium," Trump said in the Oval Office as he signed executive orders. "It's 25% without exceptions or exemptions." In doing so, he is fulfilling a campaign promise to impose tariffs on imports that match those levied by other countries on US exports. Trump also signaled that he would consider imposing additional tariffs on automobiles, pharmaceuticals and computer chips. Trump to consider steel and aluminiumtariff exemptions for Australia Trump said he would give "great consideration" to exempting Australian steel and aluminium imports from tariffs. Trump's comment came after talking to Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. Albanese argued for an exemption during the call, which was scheduled before the US president announced new 25% tariffs on steel and aluminium imports on Monday. Trump said the US trade surplus with Australia was one of the reasons he was considering an exemption from the tariffs. "We actually have a surplus," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office about trade with Australia. "It's one of the only countries which we do. And I told [Albanese] that that's something that we'll give great consideration to." Trump's statements came shortly after he announced the new tariffs, saying they are "without exception or exemption." Australia, a key US security ally in the Indo-Pacific, had an exemption from such tariffs during Trump's first administration. German steel giant says tariff impact would be 'limited' German steel maker ThyssenKrupp on Monday says it expects possible US tariffs of up to 25% on all steel and aluminium imports would have only a "very limited impact" on its business. "The main market for ThyssenKrupp's steel is Europe," the company said after US President Donald Trump suggested the tariff would come into force. "The announced tariffs on imports to the US would only have a very limited impact on ThyssenKrupp's business based on the current state of knowledge," it added. ThyssenKrupp's steel subsidiary is Germany's biggest steel producer, with a large site in the western city of Duisburg. The share of steel exported to the United States is "negligible and mainly relates to high-quality products with a good market position," the Essen-based company said. Most of ThyssenKrupp's turnover in the United States comes from trading and its automotive supply division. "Much of the production for US customers takes place within the US," the company added. Scholz: 'Whoever imposes tariffs should reckon with tariffs in return' German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said it was too early to comment in detail on Trump's tariff threats, given that for now they hailed solely from verbal comments to the media. "Whoever imposes tariffs should reckon with tariffs in return," he said at a Social Democrat election campaign event in the eastern German city of Schwerin on Monday. "It's clear that we will look at this very closely as the European Union, when it reaches us officially," Scholz added. Scholz said there was little more to say amid the uncertainty, but said it would be important for Europeans to demonstrate "clarity" on the issue if it solidified. Where do US steel and aluminium imports hail from? Trump's threatened steel and aluminium tariffs would likely hit the Americas, and particularly Canada, hardest. American Iron and Steel Institute figures show Canada, Brazil and Mexico as the three most prolific steel importers into the US, in that order. South Korea, Vietnam and Japan follow that trio from the Americas, with Germany next in line, ahead of Taiwan and the Netherlands. China, the world's biggest steel producer and exporter, has a meager foothold of less than 2% in the US import market. That's because it is already subject to 25% tariffs, imposed in 2018. Trump's proposal as outlined verbally would effectively remove the relative disadvantage Washington had imposed on Beijing in recent years. In the case of aluminium, Canada dominates imports to the US. Its total imports to the US, according to Department of Commerce figures, are almost 10 times that of any other importing country — and twice as much as the next nine most prolific importers combined. France warns US against trade war tariffs France has warned the United States against a trade war with the European Union, adding that the EU is ready to respond to tariffs placed upon member states. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said there was "no hesitation when it comes to defending our interests." In an interview with broadcaster TF1 after President Trump announced that the US would impose 25% levies on steel and aluminium products, Barrot said the EU would adopt the same course that it had during his previous term. "Of course. It's not a surprise," said Barot. "This is already what Donald Trump did in 2018." "At that time we replicated. So we will replicate again this time," he said. "No one has an interest in entering into a trade war with the European Union."
