thyssenkrupp sets closure deadline for plate mill

thyssenkrupp has confirmed that it plans to close its plate mill in the Hüttenheim district of Duisburg if no buyer is found by 30 June.

“We need to face the facts. The plant cannot go on as it does now. The option of specifying a sale or a continuation until 30 June creates the clarity we need,“ thyssenkrupp AG executive Oliver Burkhardt says in a statement sent to Kallanish. The alternatives have been specified earlier, but as time has passed it became increasingly unlikely that a buyer would emerge, given the overcapacity on the European plate market.

The deadline was announced to workers on Thursday evening and cannot have come as a surprise. Burkhardt expressed sympathy for discontent amongst the workforce, and pledged that the 800 workers at the mill will be offered jobs elsewhere within tk Steel. Nevertheless, union IG Metall has announced industrial action as a protest against the measure.