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ThyssenKrupp recently announced plans to create a 50/50 joint steel manufacturing venture with the Czech Republic’s EP Corporate Group and ThyssenKrupp Steel (TKS). According to the German group, talks are now ongoing between the two parties for the sale of an additional 30% stake in the steelmaker, following an April 26 announcement that EP would initially acquire a 20% stake in TKS. However, ThyssenKrupp did not indicate a prospective timeline for a planned sale of the additional stake.
The two parties also agreed not to disclose the financial consideration for the 20% stake, only that they plan to complete the transaction within ThyssenKrupp’s fiscal year, which ends on September 30. “Together, we want to create a high-performance, profitable, and future-oriented steel company that reduces the costs of decarbonization to a more competitive level and thus accelerates the green transformation of the steel industry on the way to CO2 neutrality,” TK quoted its executive board chairman, Manuel López, as saying.
Shift to Green Hydrogen Furnaces by 2025
TKS also indicated that it plans to start replacing its blast furnaces with direct reduced iron plants using green hydrogen starting in 2025. “They probably came together over hydrogen,” one industry watcher in Germany told MetalMiner. EP Corporate Group is part of Prague-headquartered EP Holding, an energy group with assets across Europe that is also involved in carbon-neutral products.
Steel Manufacturing Capabilities and Potential EC Involvement
ThyssenKrupp Steel’s main production site is at Duisburg, in western Germany’s North Rhine Westphalia State. At present, the site can pour 13 million metric tons of crude steel per year, which it produces via four blast furnaces and two basic oxygen furnaces. The plant then casts slab for rolling into hot and cold rolled coil as well as plate.
Other products produced by the plant include non-grain- and grain-oriented electrical steels, along with downstream coated products such as hot dipped galvanized sheet, tinplate, and pre-painted. Information on its website shows that TKS has multiple other sites for rolling and downstream services in Germany and Spain, in addition to sales offices in France and Switzerland.
Liberty Steel Walks Away from €1.5 Billion Steel Manufacturing Deal
TK has sought to divest its steelmaking arm since at least 2015. Liberty Steel expressed interest in 2021, though a disagreement over the prospective price saw talks end without any result. At the time, TK sought €1.5 billion ($1.61 billion) for the asset, while Liberty wanted to take the plant either at no cost or with an extra payment from the German group.
Tata Steel also entered into a 50/50 agreement with TK that would see the two companies merge their businesses. However, competition concerns prompted the European Commission (EC), the executive arm of the EU, to strike down the planned tie-up. The German analyst told MetalMiner that the EC is unlikely to have concerns about a joint venture between EP and TKS, as their businesses do not intersect. (Changes in global steel manufacturing affect steel prices. Opt into to MetalMiner’s free Monthly Metals Index report and use it to anticipate market changes and make strategic steel purchasing decisions.)
