ThyssenKrupp to eliminate 2,000 steel jobs

ThyssenKrupp yesterday said that it will eliminate at least 2,000 jobs at its Steel Europe unit as part of its plan to achieve savings of around €500 million ($671 million) due to high raw material and energy costs and competition from Russia.

Under the restructuring, the Essen-based company said that it will reduce headcount by around 14 per cent or 2,000 from the current 27,600 by 2015.

The company is looking to either close, relocate or sell some business units and facilities, including the coil coating line 1 in Duisburg-Beeckerwerth, one of the two electrolytic coating lines at the Dortmund plant, the cold-rolling and coating plant in Neuwied, the grain-oriented electrical steel products of ThyssenKrupp Electrical Steel, and the hot-dip galvanizing line of ThyssenKrupp Galmed in Spain.

As a result of possible disposals the number of headcount could be reduced by another 1,800.

The steel market climate in Europe is worsening due to high raw material and energy prices, CO2 allowance trading, Russia's accession to the World Trade Organization resulting in lower tariffs for Russian steel exports, and in particular the economic downturn and sharply reduced consumption levels in Europe, said the German steelmaker.

The prolonged eurozone crisis, the recession, overcapacity, cheap imports, slowdown in China, high raw material and power costs, has forced nearly all European steelmakers to shutter furnaces and sell non core assets.