Thyssenkrupp group remains dedicated to spinning off its distribution division tk Materials Services and has confirmed its plans during its recent conference call, monitored by Kallanish.
For more than a year, the German group has said that it was open to investors for the division, and at the conference call maintained the division’s capital market readiness.
This is part of a larger plan of thyssenkrupp to reshape the multi-industries conglomerate into a holding of largely independent companies, which also applies to its steelmaking unit thyssenkrupp Steel.
While the steelmaking unit reported reduced revenue in the first half of its fiscal year because of lower sales prices, tk Materials Services gained, partly due to higher prices.
The distribution division’s business in North America and the international trading business, is more shielded from negative developments in Germany and Europe. The division now generates 39% of its revenue in the USA, where it ranks among the top 20 stockholding distributors. Many of its US operations offer value-added services.
The division reported stable half-year revenue at €5.78 billion ($6.72 billion) year-on-year, although shipments in the reporting period fell from 2.3 million tonnes y-o-y to 1.7mt.
It notes that by far the largest increase was recorded by the warehousing business in North America, while the warehousing business in Europe, the automotive-related service centres and the supply chain business also developed positively.
The group remains upbeat for the prospects of the division, and for the full year forecasts a growth of 2-5% compared with the prior year.
Author: Christian Koehl
