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German conglomerate Thyssenkrupp is warning nearly 30,000 steel workers to brace for layoffs, according to a report Saturday.
Dennis Grimm, the newly named spokesman of Thyssenkrupp Steel Europe’s executive board, said the company was drawing up a new business plan that will lead to major job losses, Reuters reported.
“Tough cuts are necessary. We have to become more profitable,” Dennis Grimm told Germany’s Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper. “The current market situation has deteriorated again in recent months, and, unfortunately, there is no recovery in sight.”
Grimm made the comments after Thursday’s announcement of a management shake-up that saw Thyssenkrupp board member Ilse Henne, CEO of the company’s materials services division, named chairwoman of the steel division’s supervisory board.
Thyssenkrupp Steel Europe has been battling with its parent company over the costs of a 50/50 joint venture structure with Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky, who owns a 20% stake in the steel business, Reuters said.
The steel division has factories in nine cities across Germany and Belgium, as well as locations in France, Switzerland and Spain, according to its website.
The company employs about 27,000 steel workers, Reuters said.
“We can’t yet put an exact figure on how many people we will employ once the business plan has been finalized and negotiations with the employee representatives have been completed,” Grimm told WAZ. “But it will be fewer than today.”
Thyssenkrupp stock is down nearly 44% since the start of the year and closed Friday at $3.86 a share, up about 3%.
