2024-09-29 05:35:24
Saving, reducing, closing – this is how many companies in Germany and Europe are currently doing business. The steel producer Thyssenkrupp also now wants to reduce its workforce.
Thyssenkrupp’s new steel boss has prepared the approximately 27,000 employees of Thyssenkrupp Steel Europe for job cuts. “We cannot yet quantify exactly how many people we will employ after the business plan has been completed and the negotiations with the employee representatives have been completed,” said Dennis Grimm to the “Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung” (WAZ). But there would be fewer than today. Hard cuts are necessary. “We have to become more profitable.”
Grimm has succeeded Bernhard Osburg, who resigned in a dispute with CEO Miguel Lopez over the future of the steel division. Lopez wants to reduce production capacity due to weak demand and outsource the steel business to a 50:50 joint venture with the energy holding company owned by Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky. Employee representatives fear the loss of thousands of jobs.
“The current market situation has deteriorated again in the past few months, and unfortunately there is no recovery in sight,” Grimm told WAZ. Thyssenkrupp Steel must respond to this. The steel cookers are suffering from weak demand, particularly from the automotive industry, high energy costs and low-cost competition from the Far East.