GERMAN STEEL SUBSIDIES CANNOT CONTINUE - MINISTER
Economics Minister Martin Bangemann said
the state could not continue to pour money into West Germany's
ailing steel and coal industries because the subsidies
endangered other parts of the economy.
    "The situation is completely absurd from an economic point
of view," Bangemann told the newspaper Die Welt in an interview
released ahead of publication tomorrow.
    "We are subsidising the production of mineral coal and steel
to an enormous extent and at the same time putting a huge
burden on all other branches of industry and making them
uncompetitive," he said.
    Bangemann said the steel and coal industries were no longer
capable of being competitive. Continued state subsidies would
not save them but would only prolong their lives artifically
for a few years, he said.
    "That is why I have refused to continue subsidising them in
the way that we have done in the past," he said.
    Several steel firms have announced plans to reduce their
workforces, citing weak prices and lower exports due to the
strength of the mark and tough foreign competition.
    Bangemann said everything possible would be done to find
new jobs for the workers affected by the cuts.
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