Anonymous submission to MTL Counter-info
Kaefer is a multinational industrial service contractor working with the armaments industry, the oil and gas industry (including the extraction of tar sands and fracking in canada), and the nuclear industry.
The following communique was first published in german on tumulte.org.
The destructive must be destroyed.
On the night of November 9th to 10th, 2024, we set fire to two company vehicles at the KAEFER Group’s branch in Bremen-Walle. The vehicles were parked a long way away from the building and other vehicles, so there was no danger to people.
Kaefer is a global group with headquarters in Bremen. According to its own information, Kaefer is primarily active in the areas of insulation of industrial plants, access technology, surface protection, fire protection, electrical and mechanical services, interior fittings for the marine, offshore industry and the construction sector.
The Kaefer Group
In 1918, a peat merchant from Bremen founded a company for cooling technology. Around a hundred years later, Kaefer is one of the leading industrial service companies and not only has 25 locations in Germany, but also employs around 33,000 people in a total of 30 countries and recently achieved a turnover of 2.3 billion euros. How did a Bremen craft business become a global corporation? Well, Kaefer has very successfully specialized in industrial technology and focused on two aspects of the capitalist economy that are inextricably linked: the destruction of the earth and the war industry.
But what does that mean in concrete terms? Let us go into a little more detail:
If we look at the arms sector, for example, it quickly becomes clear that Kaefer is not just a small supplier:
KAEFER has a long-term contract with the multinational British arms company BAE Systems. BAE is one of the top ten global arms companies and is one of the largest contract partners of the US military, but also supplies Turkey (e.g. BAE is involved in the construction of the Turkish TF-X fighter jet), Israel (e.g. components for F-15, F-16 and F-35 fighter jets with which the Israeli army terrorizes the civilian population of Palestine), Saudi Arabia, Qatar, India and several other countries. At BAE Systems, Kaefer is responsible for insulation technology on Type 26 frigates. In addition, Kaefer is responsible for specialised insulation on the hull, cabins and cold rooms as well as piping, heating and ventilation of S-83 and S-82 submarines of the Spanish state-owned shipbuilder Navantia. Also on behalf of Navantia, the Spanish subsidiary KAEFER Servicios Industriales has installed structural insulation on at least 5 Avante 2000 corvettes for the Royal Saudi Naval Forces. Navantia itself is one of the largest shipbuilders in the world.
Kaefer, global arms race and the armaments sites in Bremen
A good example of KAEFER’s armaments activities and indicative of the connections at the Bremen armaments site is the work on the A400M transport aircraft: KAEFER Aerospace was involved in the construction of the insulation and the air conditioning system right from the development phase: “We are responsible for the design, production and delivery of the primary insulation and the air conditioning pipes,” says Daniel Max from the A400M program management, “In addition, the installation of the primary insulation and the delivery of spare parts are also in KAEFER’s hands.” The A400M is not only the current transport aircraft of the German Armed Forces, but an international armaments project involving numerous companies and countries. The development was commissioned by Germany, France, the UK, Luxembourg, Belgium, Spain, Turkey, South Africa and Malaysia. Responsibility for the project lay primarily with Airbus Defence and Space. Partners in addition to Kaefer included Turkish Aerospace Industries, Thales, Liebherr, Avia, BAE Systems and Europrop (which in turn is an international consortium including Rolls Royce, Safran and the German MTU Group). In addition to Airbus and Kaefer, Rheinmetall is also involved in production at the Bremen site.
At least 10 A400Ms were delivered to Turkey and are an important part of the Turkish military’s logistics apparatus. Responsibility for the Erdogan government’s massacres of the Kurdish population also lies with arms companies such as Kaefer, which can mostly produce undisturbed here on our doorstep. We can see without a doubt that Kaefer is not only an important supplier to the arms industry worldwide, but is also closely interwoven with the military-industrial complex in Bremen, as well as being directly involved internationally in the development of military equipment.
The Space Tech Expo Bremen, which is taking place next weekend, should be seen in this context. Space Tech is not a civil aerospace trade fair. This is not only evident from the fact that numerous arms companies are represented there (e.g. OHB, Honeywell, Airbus, Safran, and many more), but rather the hype surrounding the commercial space industry is inextricably linked to armament and surveillance in space. Last year the trade fair was attacked for precisely this reason; burning barricades blocked the street and employees of arms companies were briefly frightened when stones and paint rained down on the windows while the trade fair was in full swing.
Kaefer as a global player in nuclear energy, oil and gas production
In the following, we will use a few examples to show that, in addition to armaments, Kaefer is also an important player in the global exploitation of resources. We must necessarily limit ourselves to a few particularly blatant examples, simply because Kaefer seems to have its fingers in everything.
Kaefer and the tar sands mining
Tar sands are a relatively new, unconventional oil source. To put it simply, oil is pumped from deep wells in a liquid state in conventional extraction and then processed in refineries. Oil sands, on the other hand, are, as the name suggests, a mixture of sand and oil, or bitumen, and must be processed using very high energy expenditure, producing unimaginable amounts of toxic waste products. The CO2 emissions from the use of oil sands are around 31% higher than those from conventional heavy oil. In addition, some of the largest mines are extracted above ground, which means that huge areas of forest are cleared and turned into toxic wastelands. Oil sands extraction was long considered unprofitable, but in the last 20 years it has become interesting for corporations due to massive government subsidies and the desire for North American self-sufficiency in gasoline.
Kaefer has installed 17 kilometers of pipeline insulation for a small Canadian company called Cenovus Energy (with an annual turnover of just around 47 billion Canadian dollars). The pipeline was part of an expansion project for the Christina Lake oil sands mine. The Christina Lake Mine has been producing 62,000,000 (yes, 62 million!) liters of bitumen a day since 2002. Kaefer is not only proud of this project, but also points to a long-standing good relationship with Cenovus Energy – a probably good economic decision, as Cenovus has applied to continue operating the mine until 2079. The Christina Lake Mine is located in the Athabasca region. The oil produced here in several oil sands deposits is transported to the west coast of Canada via the expansion of the Trans Mountain Pipeline (Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion Project, TMX for short, completion in May 2024); with the expansion of the TMPL, Canada’s oil export capacity has been increased several times over.
Kaefer cooperation with LNG Canada
Kaefer also participated in the construction of an LNG terminal for LNG Canada. LNG Canada is a consortium of the companies Petronas, PetroChina, Mitsubishi and Korea Gas, led by Shell Canada. In detail, Kaefer (Kaefer China & Kaefer Australia) insulated the pipeline that transports the LNG gas from the storage facilities via the piers to transport ships. The terminal is being built on the Canadian Pacific coast in Kitimat and is primarily intended to supply the Asian market. The gas itself comes to Kitimat via the Coastal Gas Link Pipeline (CGL) and comes from the deposits in Montney where the gas is extracted by fracking. The CGL crosses the Rocky Mountains for 670 km and runs 100% over stolen land and through the territory of the Wet’suwet’en. Insulation work may sound unimportant, but LNG (liquefied natural gas) is natural gas that is cooled to a temperature of −161 to −164 °C, so the insulation of the pipelines and tanks is extremely important throughout the entire transport chain. This process is extremely energy-intensive, but reduces the volume of the gas by six hundred times, which makes the transport of relevant quantities economically “sensible”. To illustrate the scale and the crucial importance of this project and thus of Kaefer’s work, a few figures are worth mentioning: the terminal in Kitimat alone costs 40 billion dollars, the construction of the Coastal Gas Link Pipeline cost over 11 billion dollars, and there are other gigantic investments for the gas liquefaction plants.
The Wet’suwet’en and their allies have aggressively opposed the construction of the Coastal Gas Link Pipeline because the pipeline threatens life in and around the Wedzin Kwa River with its salmon and eel stocks, endangers water supplies and destroys fragile ecosystems in the Rocky Mountains.
The Coastal Gas Link Pipeline has been built, but there is determined resistance to many other destructive industrial projects such as the Prince Rupert Gas Transmission Pipeline (also LNG) or the Northvolt battery plant in the Montérégie region.
Other LNG projects supported by Kaefer (that we know of) are in Indonesia (Tangguh, West Papua), Qatar, Kuwait, Peru, Australia and Bahrain. It is absolutely safe to assume that Kaefer is involved in numerous other LNG projects. The ones mentioned are just those that Kaefer cites as references. Kaefer will also have a stand at the Canada Gas trade fair in Vancouver in 2025, which indicates a deep involvement in the LNG business. In addition, Kaefer is involved in numerous projects in the field of oil and gas production globally, for example offshore production in Brazil and Norway, pipeline construction, surface and insulation technology for refineries, terminals and oil fields … and all of this is just a fraction of the involvement.
Kaefer and the Nuclear Industry
Kaefer describes itself as a major player in the global nuclear industry. We know, for example, that Kaefer has carried out major contracts at the Ringhals (Sweden), Sellafield (UK), Hinkley Point (Ireland), EDF Gravelines and various other nuclear power plants in France, Brazil, South Africa, Russia and Switzerland. The group boasts an excellent reputation among nuclear power plant operators worldwide and is responsible for the insulation of the pressurized water reactors that the French Framatome group exports all over the world. In France, Kaefer also works for EDF, Orano, and the Naval Group. The group also has a factory in Pompignac to manufacture components for the nuclear industry and a research facility for the nuclear division in Saint-Cyr-sur-le-Rhône. One of Kaefer’s products is Reflective Metal Insulation, a modern reactor insulation that is marketed internationally in cooperation between Kaefer France and the Bremen site.
The entire chain of nuclear energy use, from extraction, enrichment, use for energy production, not to mention military use, to final storage, is highly destructive and has terrible consequences. The fact that a company from Bremen is involved in the development of the nuclear industry shows that a local “exit” from nuclear energy is of little importance; the know-how from the German nuclear industry is simply exported and can now be used elsewhere. An attack on Kaefer is therefore also an attack on the French nuclear industry. Many people in the north of France near Bure are currently fighting with impressive determination against a final storage facility planned there.
The core aspects we have mentioned, armaments and fossil fuels, cannot be understood separately. Of course, all militaries in the world rely on gigantic quantities of uranium, oil and gas (for example, the US military is by far the largest consumer of oil in the world) and control over these resources is the trigger for many military conflicts. In view of the globally escalating military violence, we can and must act here and now. Because the war machine that is killing in other places in the world is being set in motion in the industrial areas of this city. The armies mentioned as examples for which Kaefer produces here, i.e. Germany, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Great Britain and Spain, are among the countries that are most active in the current global arms race. These are not empty phrases; in 2023 alone, around 2.5 trillion euros were invested globally in armaments, more than ever before. In addition to Kaefer, companies such as Rheinmetall, Atlas Elektronik, OHB, Airbus, Lürssen and Thyssen are profiting from these trillions in Bremen.
The example of Kaefer’s involvement in the A400M shows that modern armaments projects depend on a highly diversified and specialized supply chain. No tank, aircraft, fighter jet or satellite is produced at a single location or planned by a single corporation. We should take advantage of this fact and identify and attack the weak points in these supply chains.
This incomplete list clearly shows that although the company appears to be based in a small house in the port of Bremen, the corporation is active worldwide wherever money can be made from the destruction of the earth and the war industry.
We want to show with our research and sabotage that the destruction and exploitation of the earth is inextricably linked to the destruction and exploitation of people. The pursuit of power, control, resources, economic growth and national greatness finds its expression in the global trend towards armaments, war and fascism. The election of Trump, the rise of fascism in Germany and many other countries is an expression of this, but the same tendencies are also reflected in the policies of “liberal” governments. Even if who holds parliamentary power has many practical consequences for our lives, it is important that we recognize and attack these tendencies.
We therefore focus on those, like Kaefer, who profit from warlike politics and enrich themselves through militarism and racist oppression. We have the greatest possible empathy for the pain of people who have to live under constant war. And we are always on the side of those who fight for freedom. Everywhere, beyond state, nation and religion.
Against war, fascism and the destruction of the earth, for social revolution!
Our thoughts are with the grieving, injured and fugitive companions in Greece. We send you love and strength!
Solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en and all those who resist the destruction!
Switch off the system of destruction – Switch off KAEFER!
