The dark streak continues in the German industry. On Monday, November 25, ThyssenKrupp’s steel subsidiary announced the elimination of 11,000 jobs by 2030, of the 27,000 at the Ruhr steel company, emblematic of the German steel industry since its origins. This great social plan occurs in a context of a great wave of industrial job destruction along the Rhine, which especially affects the automobile industry, the central specialty of “made in Germany.”
ThyssenKrupp Steel Europe (TKSE), in crisis for a decade, has so far managed to limit the scope of workforce reductions. The plan presented on Monday by the management represents a fundamental break in the history of the group with a strong social tradition: by 2030, 5,000 jobs in production and administrative services will disappear and one production plant will have to close. And another 6,000 positions will be filled “transferred” outside the company through measures of subcontracting services or selling activities, the press release states.
These figures, proposed for discussion with the IG Metall union, are still subject to change. But everything suggests that 40% of the staff of one of the most traditional companies “made in Germany” will disappear. TKSE predicts a massive reduction in the quantities of steel produced, from the current 11.5 million tonnes to 8.7 or 9 million tonnes per year by the end of the decade.
Fall in European demand
Management specifies reacting to “Fundamental and structural changes in the European steel market”in the face of excess capacity and “Increasing imports of cheap steel” from Asia. This radical plan comes a few months after the controversial arrival of billionaire Daniel Kretinsky, who entered the steel company in the spring of 2024 with 20% of the shares, through his company EP Group, and which should increase to 50%. of capital. capital. .
This increase in power of the Czech businessman in the steel company caused several resignations in management in August. With the support of the billionaire, the group has in any case confirmed its commitments to the energy transition. ThyssenKrupp, a true industrial myth, received €2 billion in subsidies from federal and regional funds at the end of 2022 to switch its blast furnaces to hydrogen.
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