German steelmaker Salzgitter said it will be the sole owner of the Hüttenwerke Krupp Mannesmann (HKM) joint venture from 1 June 2026 after agreeing to buy out the co-owners of the company, according to a joint statement from Salzgitter and thyssenkrupp Steel.
Under the plan, thyssenkrupp Steel will sell its shares in HKM to Salzgitter, effective 1 June 2026, for an undisclosed sum, providing the latter sole responsibility in a reduced scope.
Thyssenkrupp owns 50% of HKM, while Salzgitter and Vallourec control 30% and 20% of the company, respectively.
Implementation of the plan is subject to the approval of Salzgitter’s governing bodies and a positive assessment of a going concern report, which Salzgitter has already commissioned. The agreement is also conditional on the third owner, Vallourec, also agreeing to sell its shares to Salzgitter.
HKM will continue to supply slab to thyssenkrupp Steel until the end of 2028, instead of previously planned 2032.
Thyssenkrupp closed its heavy plate mill, which used HKM’s slabs as feedstock, in 2021. In addition, under the restructuring proposal, thyssenkrupp planned to cut production from 11.5 mt/y to 8.7-9.0 mt/y and to separate from HKM – either by selling the asset or shutting the plant if no buyer was found.
“This agreement is an important milestone and brings us a good step closer to establishing a sound industrial future for HKM. It creates clarity for everyone involved in this process, while offering HKM’s workforce a positive perspective. HKM will thus become part of the process of transforming to low-CO2 steel production in the Salzgitter Group,” Gunnar Groebler, CEO Salzgitter, said.
To learn more about decarbonisation projects in Europe and globally – check Global Green Steel Profile.
HKM has a capacity of around 6 mt/y of crude steel, with semi-finished products manufactured via the blast furnace-basic oxygen furnace (BF-BOF) route.
Salzgitter’s announcement confirmed rumours that one of HKM’s shareholders was planning to continue production despite earlier plans to divest the asset as the mill can supply slab to the spot market to substitute imports.
European re-rollers, mainly producing heavy plate, rely heavily on imported slab, though the introduction of the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) on steel imports to the EU from January 2026 has resulted in a significant increase in costs. European re-rollers estimated CBAM duties for import slab at EUR40-80/t, but those numbers could be higher if the exporting steelmaker does not get emissions verification in time in which case the buyers would have to pay the duty based on default emission values.
A few market sources have reported revived domestic slab market activity in Europe with HKM offering slab on the spot market.
