Top German companies join forces against metal theft

German top companies join forces against metal theft Three major German companies – Deutsche Telekom, Deutsche Bahn AG (railway) and RWE (energy) – have pulled together to act against metal theft under a newly announced “Security Partnership” which also involves the German Metal Trader’s Association (Verband Deutscher Metallhändler). The main idea is to exchange information about thefts and make it more difficult for thieves to sell their loot on the metal market. The group also plans to introduce new security measures and to develop scientific methods to trace stolen metal. The three companies have suffered severe losses caused by metal theft (especially copper) in recent months and years. In 2011, Deutsche Bahn reported more than 3.000 theft incidents causing huge delays and disturbances on its railway network. Over the same period, Deutsche Telekom infrastructure was targeted 320 times by metal thieves while RWE suffered 466 thefts.  The total costs of these thefts for the three enterprises have almost doubled from €11 million in 2010 to more than €20 million in 2011.