Steelmaker DEW to sell Hagen and Krefeld plants – closure if no buyer is found

Data as of: As of 14 October 2026, 7:25 am

Specialty steelmaker Deutsche Edelstahlwerke (DEW), part of Switzerland's Swiss Steel, is restructuring its plants in North Rhine-Westphalia. The wire rolling mill in Hagen (about 300 staff) and the steel processing site in Krefeld (about 450) are to be sold. If no buyer is found, both sites will close. The Siegen steelworks will pause – about 220 staff are affected, while the rolling mill with about 700 staff stays (dpa, 13 October). Steelmaking will be concentrated in Witten (over 1,000 staff), where the electric arc furnace and casting plant are to run at almost full capacity. Investment is planned, but no amount was given. Reasons: a market that has shrunk since 2021, high energy costs and import pressure.

Other news from Tuesday: Ryanair is withdrawing all seven aircraft based at Berlin's BER airport from November. About 700,000 winter seats will go in Berlin and Hamburg, and Ryanair's Berlin passenger numbers are set to halve to about 2.5 million in 2027. No job figures were given. Department store chain Galeria, insolvent again, will receive insolvency pay for 9,650 of its 11,250 staff for October to December. Its 83 stores keep trading for now; which ones close is still open.

The Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) confirmed on Tuesday that inflation was 3.3% in September – above 3% for the first time since late 2023. Energy was 14.9% dearer than a year earlier, food 0.4%. Core inflation (excluding energy and food) was 2.4%. The International Monetary Fund raised its 2026 growth forecast for Germany from 0.7% to 1.3%.

The table has one new entry (DEW). The totals are unchanged: EUR 2.47bn of investment and 5,840 announced job cuts with a firm number. DEW is not counted because the plants are first to be sold and it is unclear how many jobs will go. To keep the table at 25 rows, the oldest entry without a number (Covenant's Leipzig plant, 5 October) was removed.