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.
  

