THE CONSEQUENCES FOR THE RUHR
Three years after Kaiserstuhl was decommissioned the world market was impacted by a development that blindsided the German steel industry: the growing economic boom in China boosted demand for steel and thus also for coke. Consequently the price of coke skyrocketed from 30 dollars to 550 dollars per ton. Steel became so expensive that medium-sized metal processors here in Germany were severely hit. German industry now wanted Kaiserstuhl back as the three remaining coking plants in the Ruhr region – the Bottrop plant, Prosper, the coking plant, Schwelgern and the Krupp Mannesmann smelting works – had long been working at the very limits of their capacities. A self-made plight, from which they are attempting to escape via new building measures; no-one wants to be wholly dependent on imported coal anymore nor do they wish to be at the mercy of the capricious fluctuations in the global market. In 2005 therefore the Krupp Mannesmann smelting works applied for a permit to expand and also decided to redevelop the central coking plant of Saar GmbH, Dillingen.
