Climate Activists Target KNDS Steel Plant as Defence Giant Posts Record Orders Ahead of Dual Listing

Climate activists blocked KNDS armor steel foundry for one shift, but the defense firm posted record €13.5bn orders and €4.4bn revenue as it prepares a 2026 IPO.

Climate Activists Target KNDS Steel Plant as Defence Giant Posts Record Orders Ahead of Dual Listing. Climate activists blockaded the entrance to KNDS’s specialty steel foundry in Mülheim an der Ruhr on 29 May, preventing the early shift from starting at a site that produces armor plate for the Leopard 2, Boxer and Puma armoured vehicles. The protest — which the activist group Ende Gelände said involved 200 people, while police counted 120 — was directed against the coal-intensive steelmaking process at the plant, which also supplies a nearby pipe manufacturer. KNDS employs roughly 300 workers at the facility, operated through its subsidiary FWH Stahlguss. The disruption lasted only a single shift, and the company has not disclosed any quantifiable production loss. Still, the timing is awkward. Just three days earlier, on 26 May, KNDS had...