Erika Zender, CEO, Aluminium Rheinfelden GmbH

Germany and the Covid-19 virus

“I think we have come through the crisis well in Germany so far, on the one hand because the politicians have not decided a complete shutdown of the economy, but have mainly started where there was a lot of public contact. Bans on contact, i.e. social distancing, have been important. In addition, the value of small and medium-sized businesses has been recognised, and both the federal states and the federal government are trying to provide liquidity with relatively unbureaucratic means.
As Aluminium Rheinfelden diversified early on, we have the advantage of not being dependent on a major segment. For example, the production stop in the car industry does not affect us so much. We can compensate for this with our other products. What we have done is to strengthen health controls, also from our business perspective, to keep the pandemic out of our plant.

Personally, I doubt whether the New Green Deal that the EU has decided on will happen. Rather, I believe that we must learn to live in and with the pandemic and to adapt production methods and our industry to it. It goes without saying that this must be environmentally friendly. When we have an overall start to the global economy, we must not believe that we can then decouple ourselves from climate requirements. Interestingly enough, aluminium is an important part of the energy turnaround because its properties help to save weight.
I would also like to point out that the virus has spread particularly where the air parameters were at their worst. China and northern Italy have the lowest air values in the world. In this respect, I believe that we must continue along the path of a CO2-poorer world. The future belongs to companies that produce CO2-neutral and transport it to the customer”.