Germany’s Focus magazine interviewed Marcello Danieli, head of Harder Logistics, a German company specialized in relocations, who said that 75% of its record turnover of €15 million last year comes from industrial relocations abroad. More and more German companies are relocating in Eastern Europe, Asia and America.
“As a relocation specialist, he benefits from companies relocating abroad. On the other hand, he is concerned about the deindustrialization of Germany.” Bureaucracy and the cost of energy are the main causes for industrial “emigration.” Bureaucracy (which included Green regulations) sometimes frightens foreign investors as well. Danieli mentions the case of the Portuguese company Colep Kosmetika, which wanted to open a production line in Germany, but after waiting too long for permits, decided to move to Mexico. “In cases like Colep, he misses an outcry. ‘Such plant closures only cause a brief stir in the region. Even small relocations weaken the national economy.’ Germany is currently characterized by its inability to stop this creeping process. ‘Only when a company like BASF makes four-digit job cuts do you hear loud protests.’”
