The Ruhr region is often overlooked as a business location. Yet some of the top-selling companies are headquartered here. Slowly, the cities are recovering from the legacy of the coal and steel industry.
The Ruhr area is drawing on its past, but also suffering from it. Reports about the Ruhr area often refer to it as the poorhouse of the republic and to social hot spots. Now and then, some take pains to highlight the creative potential of Germany's largest conurbation. In fact, as is so often the case, the truth lies in the middle: In addition to large industrial companies, interesting medium-sized businesses as well as up-and-coming technology companies are shaping the region today. It's worth taking a closer look.
With coal to the largest metropolitan area in Europe
Due to its coal deposits, the Ruhr region developed into Europe's largest conurbation at the beginning of the 19th century. In the course of industrialization, the then still small villages in the Ruhr experienced explosive population growth. The reason for this was the natural coal deposits in the region, which were used for the production of iron, steel, steam engines and railroads. As a result, an economic and social monostructure developed that was entirely geared to the needs of the coal and steel industry. It was completely limited to coal production and upstream and downstream economic sectors. However, the coal crisis in 1958 put an end to this era and the region was faced with the challenge of economic reorientation.
The industrial heritage lives on in the large corporations of the Ruhr region
The time when people in the Ruhr region lived off industrial labor is largely over. Nevertheless, there is an industrial heritage that is still alive and well in the Ruhr economy today. If you take a look at some of the largest companies traded at exness fx broker in the Ruhr, you will still find industrial heavyweights such as ThyssenKrupp or Evonik Industries. Many of the major companies in the Ruhr region have a similar history and stem from the old coal and steel industry as well as related industries. Today, this industrial heritage forms the basis of the largest companies between Duisburg and Dortmund.
The energy sector is the backbone of the Ruhr economy
Of all the former steel companies, ThyssenKrupp is now the only one remaining in the Ruhr region. With over 150,000 employees worldwide and sales of around 42 billion euros in 2015, it is also one of a total of three DAX companies headquartered in the Ruhr region. ThyssenKrupp now unites a wide range of steel-related solutions under its corporate brand. Many other companies in the coal and steel industry, on the other hand, have been absorbed into the most important of the industries in the Ruhr: the energy industry.
After ThyssenKrupp moved its headquarters from Düsseldorf to the Ruhr region, E-on also moved from the state capital to Essen in 2016. As a result, three DAX companies now have their headquarters in the Ruhr region: RWE, E-on and ThyssenKrupp. In addition, there are other groups in the energy sector such as Steag, Trianel and Amprion. However, this is also the Achilles' heel of the Ruhr economy, as the energy turnaround is increasingly flooding Germany with solar and wind power plants. This is also at the expense of the already cash-strapped municipalities, most of which have stakes in the major energy suppliers through their municipal utilities. On the one hand, the industrial heritage of the Ruhr region is a great opportunity. On the other hand, the great focus on the energy sector also harbors risks. For example, city coffers are heavily dependent on political decisions in the energy sector, such as the Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG), or on decisions at EU level. Even today, economic policy in the Ruhr region is therefore putting a lot of effort into creating diversified industry clusters. Here and there, this policy is already showing good results.