EU policy boosts thyssenkrupp in Jindal talks: Lopez Borrego
The increasingly supportive EU policy environment is improving steelmakers’ valuations and playing into the hands of thyssenkrupp during its negotiations to sell a stake in its Steel Europe business to India’s Jindal Group, says thyssenkrupp group chief executive Miguel Lopez.
CBAM came fully into force from 1 January, while the new EU steel trade regime to replace existing safeguards is anticipated to begin from 1 July.
“The sentiment has turned into a positive one for the last four months. We have seen increases in [EU stock market listed steel companies’] share prices of around 50% and more. So there is a clear positive sentiment,” Lopez said during thyssenkrupp’s earnings call on Thursday monitored by Kallanish.
“It is also clear that this is due to the tariff situation, as mentioned before, and the limitation also of the import quota for Europe. And of course, the idea of resilience – and I’ve been reporting, you remember about the steel summit with [German] Chancellor [Friedrich] Merz and also talks that we had directly with [European Commission President] Ursula von der Leyen and her team. So yes, there is a clear positive sentiment here. And of course, that will have, for sure, to get into an input for the conversations with our colleagues from Jindal, no doubt about that,” he added.
The German industrial conglomerate remains in “intense” due diligence discussions with Jindal, he said. Its aim remains to sell a majority stake to the Indian group.
CBAM and the new trade regime have not had a tangible impact so far but do present an upside potential.
“It is expected that we will see improved pricing after the tariffs will be introduced in Europe,” Lopez said. “And also the CBAM – concrete CBAM actions will, I believe, also help. We will not see anything this fiscal year around it because we expect the European Union to decide on the tariffs around May, June. And until then everything is really getting into the orders; we will see an impact for sure next fiscal year. But the likelihood that we see this fiscal year some positive effects already in our view is, for the time being, very limited.”
Work on the Duisburg direct reduced iron plant continues to move ahead “with full commitment”, he noted. Formwork and reinforcement operations and major concreting work have been completed for the tower of the DRI plant and the two smelters, as have extensive construction measures for the plant’s technical infrastructure.
