A year of “strategic decisions” opens for the German industrialist Thyssenkrupp weighed down by a new annual loss and which is working on the restructuring of its activities, in particular the steel branch in search of financing, its management indicated on Tuesday.
Many uncertainties remain over the future model of this conglomerate in full transformation, where unions fear thousands of job cuts.
In its staggered 2023/2024 financial year, the emblematic group of the Ruhr region (west) was weighed down by “significantly lower demand” in the automotive industry, engineering and construction, leading to a loss of 1.5 billion euros, after 2.1 billion the previous year.
Thyssenkrupp Steel, Germany’s leading steelmaker, is the focus of the group’s setbacks: its turnover fell by 18% to 10.7 billion euros, penalized by competition from China and rising manufacturing costs. ‘energy.
The steel manufacturer must at the same time finance its costly decarbonization, a 3 billion euro project but the final bill could be higher.

Thyssenkrupp CEO Miguel Lopez, during the annual results conference, in Essen in western Germany, November 19, 2024 / Ina FASSBENDER / AFP
The future of the group’s 98,000 employees, including 27,000 in the steel industry, will depend on these projects.
“We want to succeed in the reorganization of steel if possible without economic layoffs”CEO Miguel Lopez repeated on Tuesday, during the annual results conference at the group’s headquarters in Essen.
State participation
He also judged ” logic “ to discuss with Berlin public participation in the steel division, an option favored by unions and local elected officials. But the priority remains “empowerment” of this branch, even if several attempts at sale have failed in the past, underlined Mr. Lopez.
In April, the entry into the capital of billionaire Daniel Kretinsky to the tune of 20%, via his holding company EPCG, was greeted with anger by the unions.
The CEO praised Tuesday « discussions constructives » with the Czech tycoon with a view to acquiring 50% of the shares and the creation of a joint venture.
A serious governance crisis also shook the division at the end of the summer, with the departure of its boss and several members of the board of directors in open war with Miguel Lopez.
The 2024/2025 financial year will be “a year of transition on the financial level, and the year of decisions on the strategic level”underlined the latter.
The Essen group expects to come out of the red, with a net profit expected between 100 and 500 million euros next year.
The conglomerate expects sales growth of up to 3%, thanks to “stabilization of demand in the second half” in suffering sectors.

Thyssenkrupp CEO Miguel Lopez, during the annual results conference, in Essen in western Germany, November 19, 2024 / Ina FASSBENDER / AFP
The steel division will also benefit from an income of 440 million euros with the sale in October of its subsidiary based in India which supplies electrical equipment to companies.
Prospects well received on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, where the action jumped 9.82% to 3.73 euros at 1:20 p.m. GMT.
Submarines on the stock market
While steel represents a third of the CO2 emissions of German industry, Thyssenkrupp still plans to inaugurate its production of green steel – using hydrogen produced by renewable energies – in 2027 at its Duisburg site, thanks to more than 2 billion euros in public subsidies.
“The installation may be more expensive than expected (…) but we assume that the installation can be carried out under current conditions”commented the CEO on Tuesday while some consider this mega-project threatened.
Its achievement could also be compromised by insufficient volumes of hydrogen available.
The group’s primary source of income, the branch specializing in materials, saw its turnover decline by 11% in one year.
With steel, it weighs on the group’s overall sales, down 7% to 35 billion euros.
On the other hand, decarbonization technologies (+19%) and the shipyard activity ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems TKMS (+16%) improved their turnover.
Weak global demand notably resulted in an 11% decline in the group’s orders, to 32.8 billion euros, to which only submarines remained impervious, with an increase of 53% in orders.
After the failure of the sale of a majority stake in the capital of TKMS to the Carlyle investment fund, the group could give independence to the activity by listing it on the stock market next year, according to recent statements by the boss of the subsidiary