Almost 2,000 people miss work every day in the steel industry. The Union of Steel Companies (Unesid) This is what he denounces and assures that 35 buses with capacity for 50 people could be filled daily with people who do not go to work. The sector’s employers affirm that in 83% of cases the cause of the absence is not related to the work itself and urges to regulate in some way a situation that left almost five million hours lost in 2023.
Unesid manages annual absenteeism statistics and does not yet have those for the current year, but the general director of the association, Andres Barceloassures in conversation with La Información Económica that the trend is similar in 2024 and that in the case of some communities such as the Basque Country, one of the industrial regions par excellence of the country, it is “excessive.” “Most of our companies pay 100% of your salary when you are on sick leave. It is a good thing when you are really sick, because the last thing you want is to earn less, but that is for the jetas, who are like in everywhere, it can be an incentive. It is a big problem that is not talked about and we have to do pedagogy and ensure that it is recognized,” says Barceló, insisting on the need for the Administration to recognize this problem and take measures. The 46 companies that make up Unesid, such as Celsa, Acerinox or ArcerlorMittalamong others, directly and indirectly employ around 60,000 people, and the sector as a whole has a turnover of almost 15,000 million euros.
The manager emphasizes that it is a silenced problem in the Public Administration and that the unions do not want to deal with either. In his opinion, in certain cases, union organizations “make the mistake of wanting to protect those who do not deserve to be protected.” According to Barceló, The average salary in the steel industry is about 50,000 euros gross per year. But absenteeism is not only a matter of the steel industry, but in 2023 more than 396 million working days were lost in Spain as a result of temporary disability processes, a figure that represents a 62% increase in the days lost in 2018. according to data from the Valencian Institute of Economic Research (Ivie). It should be noted that it cannot be determined how much is fraud.
Fraud in pipe imports
Another issue that worries Unesid is the Fsurge in imports of steel pipes. The signature Andersen Tax & Legal has produced a legal report confirming that numerous materials arriving from outside the European Union for photovoltaic energy installations are incorrectly declared as solar structures. According to foreign trade statistics published by the Tax Agency, in the first four months of the year materials have been imported from China at an average price of 952 euros/t, with no added value additional to that of the tubes, which reach 27,000 tons in 192 operations. Unesid thus estimates a total value of 26 million euros.
“There are smart people who take the steel tube and make two holes in it so they can hook it to a structure or whatever and declare it as if it were a component of a photovoltaic structure. They mostly come from China and save up to 25% This is causing Spanish photovoltaic installers to stop buying tubes here and in Europe. In my opinion, it is fraud and it means reducing a lot of income to the State. We believe that it is nonsense that is sinking our national manufacturers. “It is taking away a significant amount of income from them, and it is also undermining the State’s ability to have more money,” warns Barceló.
The general director of Unesid also talks about energy extra cost that the large industry has been suffering after the price crash starting in the summer of 2021 and the subsequent Russian invasion of Ukraine. Barceló requests term contracts with competitive prices for electro-intensive companies – with large electricity consumption. In fact, a large part of the electro-intensive industry has the obligation to prove by the end of November that it has the 10% of your annual electricity supply contracted through term instruments.
Another issue that currently harms the electro-intensive industry is the obligation to consume in off-peak periods. To obtain the status of electro-intensive consumer, the company’s annual energy consumption must have been greater than 1 GWh during two of the three previous years and the consumption in the hours corresponding to the off-peak tariff period must be at least 50% of the total energy consumed. Today, tolls are cheaper in off-peak periods, but the wholesale market is cheaper during the central hours of the day thanks to renewable energy – especially solar photovoltaic -. “Right now the tolls are structured so that more is consumed at night, that is to say that it is cheaper at night, but the market price is being cheaper in the central hours of the day. There is some company that what it does is only operate at night as little as possible to comply with the statute,” says Barceló.
Under this scenario, large industry also demands to be able to have more than one supplier in its facilities, allowing multiple counters for a single connection point. The sector sources consulted point out that this would achieve contracts with more competitive prices, thanks to greater competition between the country’s large electricity companies and other smaller generators. They give as an example that photovoltaic contracts are being signed that range around 35 euros per megawatt hour (MWh), but for only a series of hours a day. They thus demand a kind of flat rate as in mobile telephony.
