Thyssenkrupp Steel CEO, Dennis Grimm, rejects a claim by IG Metall that he plans to halve the steel plant in Duisburg. “What’s true is that we’re planning a reduction in production capacity, but there’s no halving of the plant” Grimm said in a published article on the Steel-Intranet, reported by the Rheinische Post on Thursday.
IG Metall fears that the company plans to cut capacity from the current 11 million to 5-6 million tons per year. Grimm disputes this, saying, “Our target is 8.7 to 9 million tons per year, which is roughly in line with what we sold last year and slightly below the average of the last five years. It’s not about halving, but about reducing our structural over-capacity by around 2 million tons.” He added, “We don’t want to give up market share to competitors.”
Grimm also prepares the workforce for tough times, saying, “We’re going to the wire. If we don’t do anything, no job in the steel division will be safe. Therefore, we must adapt our production capacity and achieve a competitive cost level. We’re aware that the path ahead will be hard and challenging for all of us, but only this way can we make Thyssenkrupp Steel future-proof and preserve many good jobs.”
Concerns are also growing in the workforce that the company will shut down the Hochofen 1 in Schwelgern soon. Hochofen-Chef Chris Lindner rejects this in the article, saying, “The Hochofen 1 in Schwelgern was put into operation in 2021 and is state-of-the-art. It needs to be replaced in 2031/2032. The management and I assume that the Hochofen 1 will reach this point in time.