BERLIN (Reuters) – Thyssenkrupp Steel Europe (TKSE), the steel division of Thyssenkrupp, plans to cut 11,000 jobs, or around 40% of its employees, the company said on Monday, the latest major restructuring announced by a German industrial giant .

Thyssenkrupp Steel Europe will cut 5,000 jobs by 2030 and another 6,000 jobs with the sale of business activities or transfer to external service providers.

“Urgent measures are necessary to improve the productivity and operational efficiency of Thyssenkrupp Steel and to achieve a competitive cost level,” the company said in a statement.

The division’s new strategy also includes reducing production capacity from 11.5 million tonnes to a future shipping target of 8.7 to 9 million tonnes, “an adjustment to future market expectations”, he said. declared TKSE.

The Kreuztal-Eichen processing site will also be closed, it is indicated in the press release.

The sale of its Duisburg factory, Huettenwerke Krupp Mannesmann, is also a key part of the company’s planned capacity reduction, considering closure of the site if a sale is not possible.

“Anyone who wants to cut more than 11,000 jobs and close a site must expect fierce resistance from IG Metall,” said Knut Giesler, head of the IG Metall union in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Westphalia, in the west of the country.

Other large German companies are also considering closing factories. Last week, workers and management at carmaker Volkswagen held a third round of talks over wage cuts and possible factory closures in Germany.

Last week, Thyssenkrupp reduced the value of its steel division by a billion euros due to the deterioration of the sector’s outlook.

TKSE is now valued at 2.4 billion euros in the group’s accounts, less than half of what it was worth two years ago, while the outlook for Germany, Europe’s largest economy, continue to darken.

(Reporting Tom Kaeckenhoff, written by Friederike Heine, Etienne Breban, edited by Augustin Turpin)

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