ThyssenKrupp AG (, ; stylized as thyssenkrupp) is a German industrial engineering and
steel
Steel is an alloy made up of iron with added carbon to improve its strength and fracture resistance compared to other forms of iron. Many other elements may be present or added. Stainless steels that are corrosion- and oxidation-resistant ty ...
production
multinational conglomerate
Conglomerate or conglomeration may refer to:
* Conglomerate (company)
* Conglomerate (geology)
* Conglomerate (mathematics)
In popular culture:
* The Conglomerate (American group), a production crew and musical group founded by Busta Rhymes
** Co ...
. It is the result of the 1999
merger
Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are business transactions in which the ownership of companies, other business organizations, or their operating units are transferred to or consolidated with another company or business organization. As an aspect ...
of
Thyssen AG
Thyssen was a major German steel producer founded by August Thyssen. The company merged with Friedrich Krupp AG Hoesch-Krupp to form ThyssenKrupp in 1999.
History
On 29 September 1891, August Thyssen and his brother Joseph Thyssen came to be i ...
and
Krupp
The Krupp family (see pronunciation), a prominent 400-year-old German dynasty from Essen, is notable for its production of steel, artillery, ammunition and other armaments. The family business, known as Friedrich Krupp AG (Friedrich Krup ...
and has its operational headquarters in
Duisburg
Duisburg () is a city in the Ruhr metropolitan area of the western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Lying on the confluence of the Rhine and the Ruhr rivers in the center of the Rhine-Ruhr Region, Duisburg is the 5th largest city in Nor ...
and
Essen
Essen (; Latin: ''Assindia'') is the central and, after Dortmund, second-largest city of the Ruhr, the largest urban area in Germany. Its population of makes it the fourth-largest city of North Rhine-Westphalia after Cologne, Düsseldorf and D ...
. The company claims to be one of the world's largest
steel producers
This is a list of the largest steel-producing companies in the world mostly based on the list by the World Steel Association. This list ranks steelmakers by volume of steel production in millions of tonnes and includes all steelmakers with producti ...
, and it was ranked tenth-largest worldwide by revenue in 2015.
["The world's largest steel companies in 2015, based on revenue"](_blank)
''Statista'' It is divided into 670 subsidiaries worldwide. The largest shareholders are
Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach Foundation and
Cevian Capital. ThyssenKrupp's products range from machines and industrial services to
high-speed trains
High-speed rail (HSR) is a type of rail system that runs significantly faster than traditional rail, using an integrated system of specialised rolling stock and dedicated tracks. While there is no single standard that applies worldwide, lines ...
,
elevators, and shipbuilding. Subsidiary
ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems
ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems of Germany (often abbreviated TKMS) is a group and holding company of providers of naval vessels, surface ships and submarines. It was founded when large industrial conglomerate ThyssenKrupp acquired Howaldtswerke-Deutsc ...
also manufactures frigates, corvettes, and submarines for the
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ger ...
and foreign
navies
A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and related functions. It includ ...
.
In 2018, ThyssenKrupp announced that the company would split into two companies, ThyssenKrupp Industrials and ThyssenKrupp Materials, but this plan was cancelled in May 2019.
History
ThyssenKrupp is the result of a merger of two German steel companies,
Thyssen AG
Thyssen was a major German steel producer founded by August Thyssen. The company merged with Friedrich Krupp AG Hoesch-Krupp to form ThyssenKrupp in 1999.
History
On 29 September 1891, August Thyssen and his brother Joseph Thyssen came to be i ...
founded in 1891 under the name ''Gewerkschaft Deutscher Kaiser'' and
Krupp
The Krupp family (see pronunciation), a prominent 400-year-old German dynasty from Essen, is notable for its production of steel, artillery, ammunition and other armaments. The family business, known as Friedrich Krupp AG (Friedrich Krup ...
founded in 1811. As early as the 1980s, the companies began negotiations on a merger and began closely cooperating in some business areas. In 1997, the companies combined their flat steel activities, with a full merger completed in March 1999.
Beginnings (1811–1891)
Krupp
* 1811:
Friedrich Carl Krupp establishes a cast
steel
Steel is an alloy made up of iron with added carbon to improve its strength and fracture resistance compared to other forms of iron. Many other elements may be present or added. Stainless steels that are corrosion- and oxidation-resistant ty ...
factory in Essen, Germany.
* 1826: After Friedrich Krupp's death in 1826, his widow Therese Krupp runs the company together with other relatives and her eldest son Alfred, who was 14 years old at the time.
* 1833: Krupp manufactures complete rolling machines.
* 1847: Expansion of the railroads increases the demand for durable cast steel, triggering the company's first surge of growth. Supplies include axles, springs, and seamless tires that can withstand increasing speed without cracking.
* 1859: The Prussian military orders 300 gun barrels, marking the development of the company's second major production segment; shortly after Krupp begins producing complete artillery.
* 1862: Construction of the first
Bessemer steel plant on the continent for mass production of rails and steel sheets.
* 1864–1872: The company purchases various iron ore mines to avoid dependency on external suppliers. In 1873, Krupp establishes his own shipping company in Rotterdam to transport ore from the Spanish company Orconera Iron Ore Co., in which he owns shares.
* 1872: Alfred Krupp issues a "General Directive" establishing company hierarchy from foreman to management. Included in the directive are regulations concerning company welfare programs, including the pension fund, sickness, and death benefit insurance, company bakery and retail store, worker housing estates, and health care, all of which were slowly introduced beginning in 1836.
Thyssen
![Thyssen & Co AG 1922](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/24/Thyssen_%26_Co_AG_1922.jpg)
* 1867: Establishment of Thyssen, Fossoul & Co. a company making hoop iron for barrels, crates, baling etc.
* 1871: Establishment of Thyssen & Co. in Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany
* 1891: August Thyssen becomes the owner of the Gewerkschaft Deutscher Kaiser coal mine in Hamborn near Duisburg. One year earlier, the Thyssen company constructed a steel mill directly adjacent to one of the pits, thus Thyssen grows into an iron and steel mill with its own coal base.
Wilhelminian period (1892–1917)
Krupp
* 1893: Following the death of Alfred Krupp in 1887, Friedrich Alfred Krupp expands his father's enterprise with takeovers of additional steel mills and shipyards and construction of diesel engines in collaboration with
Rudolf Diesel.
* 1899: With the acquisition of and/or increased investment in various coal mines (Hannibal colliery near Bochum and the Emscher-Lippe coal mine near Datteln) business development concentrates on vertical structures with the expansion of a coal base.
* 1903:
Friedrich Alfred Krupp
Friedrich Alfred Krupp (17 February 1854 – 22 November 1902) was a German steel manufacturer and head of the company Krupp. He was the son of Alfred Krupp and inherited the family business when his father died in 1887. Whereas his father had ...
dies suddenly in 1902 at the age of 48 and his eldest daughter
Bertha Krupp
Bertha Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach (29 March 1886 – 21 September 1957) was a member of the Krupp family, Germany's leading industrial dynasty of the 19th and 20th centuries. As the elder child and heir of Friedrich Alfred Krupp she was the ...
inherits the company. The company is converted into a stock corporation by the will of the late owner; Bertha retains all the stock. As she is still a minor, her mother Margarethe Krupp as guardian and proprietor takes over as the head of the company, managed by a board of directors.
* 1906: Bertha Krupp marries Gustav von Bohlen und Halbach who adds the Krupp name as a prefix to his own family name. He is appointed vice-chairman of the board and serves as chairman through 1943.
* 1912: Development of stainless, acid-resistant steels quickly finds application in the chemical and food processing industries, medicine, and building. The spire of New York's
Chrysler Building is clad in the new stainless steel panels.
* 1917: The "Paris Gun" is developed with a range of .
Thyssen
* 1895: Thyssen sets up integrated iron and steel mill with the construction of a blast furnace plant at the Gewerkschaft Deutscher Kaiser. Subsequent expansion is focused on vertical integration of the group.
* 1906: Intra-company trading and shipping organizations are established to facilitate the transport of iron ore to the blast furnace plants. In 1910, the N.V. Handels- en Transport Maatschappij Vulcaan ocean shipping company is established in Rotterdam to keep the Thyssen group independent of the international freight market.
* 1910: Expansion with mills in the Lorraine and Normandy.
* 1912: Various branches are set up in the Mediterranean area (Algiers, Port Said, Suez, Oran, Naples, Bona, Bizerte, Tangier, and Genoa) so that freighters can store coal en route to Russian or Indian ore mines besides delivery of coal or freight for third parties.
* 1913: Attention is paid to Latin America with the founding of the ''Deutsch-Überseeische Handelsgesellschaft'' (German Overseas Trading Company). Thyssen constructs extensive housing estates and related infrastructure to attract workers to the western Ruhr area. By the end of 1913, Thyssen owns 8,750 housing units for 15,500 employees and 850 civil servants: housing for 44,000 people.
* 1914: Gewerkschaft Deutscher Kaiser begins producing armaments for the First World War. To compensate for labor shortages, women, civilians from Belgium, and prisoners of war work for the company.
Weimar Republic (1918–1933)
Krupp
* 1919: Following the
Treaty of Versailles
The Treaty of Versailles (french: Traité de Versailles; german: Versailler Vertrag, ) was the most important of the peace treaties of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June ...
, Krupp reverts to peace-time production focusing on the manufacture of locomotives, trucks, agricultural machinery, and excavators. The post-war circumstances of inflation, occupation, and dismantling of the company's industrial infrastructure led to a financial crisis in 1924/25. The company stabilizes by, among other measures, streamlining processing operations and expanding stainless steel production.
* 1926: Sintered tungsten carbide was developed by
Osram
Osram Licht AG is a German company that makes electric lights, headquartered in Munich and Premstätten (Austria). Osram positions itself as a high-tech photonics company that is increasingly focusing on sensor technology, visualization and tre ...
as a material for machining metal. In 1925, Krupp buys the licence and launches sintered carbide onto the market, exploiting its exceptional hardness and wear resistance, which represents a breakthrough in tool engineering.
* 1929: A 15,000-ton forging press goes into operation in Essen-Borbeck. It is at the time the largest worldwide.
Thyssen
* 1919: The company is renamed from Gewerkschaft Deutscher Kaiser to August Thyssen-Hütte; Gewerkschaft and mining operations are transferred to an independent company, Gewerkschaft Friedrich Thyssen. The company's foreign interests in the Allied and Soviet countries are expropriated.
* 1926: Major parts of the Thyssen group are transferred to a newly merged group,
Vereinigte Stahlwerke AG, bringing together several coal and steel companies in the Ruhr area to solve cost and production problems of excess capacities. August Thyssen dies at Schloss Landsberg near Essen. His sons Fritz Thyssen and Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza inherit the industrial enterprises. His other two children, Hedwig and August Jr., are compensated differently.
Nazi Germany (1933–1945)
Krupp
* 1937: As dictated by Hitler's
Four-Year Plan
The Four Year Plan was a series of economic measures initiated by Adolf Hitler in Nazi Germany in 1936. Hitler placed Hermann Göring in charge of these measures, making him a Reich Plenipotentiary (Reichsbevollmächtigter) whose jurisdiction cut a ...
, production of locomotives, trucks, and ships was expanded and armaments production resumed.
* 1941: Krupp Germania shipyard was extended with the acquisition of Deutsche Schiff- und Maschinenbau AG "Deschimag" to include larger ships and submarines. Krupp took advantage of foreign labourers,
slave labourers, prisoners of war, and Jews to compensate for labour shortages. It is estimated that a total of 100,000 people were forced to work by the company. Moreover, it had a workshop near the Auschwitz complex. Due to the company's involvement in the war,
Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach was subsequently convicted for
crimes against humanity
Crimes against humanity are widespread or systemic acts committed by or on behalf of a ''de facto'' authority, usually a state, that grossly violate human rights. Unlike war crimes, crimes against humanity do not have to take place within the ...
and received a sentence of 12 years imprisonment during
The United States of America vs. Alfried Krupp, et al., trial of December 8, 1947- July 31, 1948.
Thyssen
* 1934: The company August Thyssen-Hütte AG is spun off the Vereinigte Stahlwerke AG as a so-called operating company.
* 1939:
Fritz Thyssen
Friedrich "Fritz" Thyssen (9 November 1873 – 8 February 1951) was a German businessman, born into one of Germany's leading industrial families. He was an early supporter of the Nazi Party, but later broke with them.
Biography
Youth
Thyssen w ...
, chairman of the Board of Vereingte Stahlwerke AG, flees to Switzerland after the invasion of Poland. Vichy France hands over Thyssen and his wife to the German Reich at the end of 1940.
* 1940: A rearmament policy is introduced by the Nazis in the mid-1930s and with the outbreak of war, labor is conscripted and supplemented by foreign workers, slave laborers, and prisoners of war.
* 1945: Thyssenhütte mill in Hamborn occupied by US troops.
Mergers and acquisitions
![ThyssenKrupp Test Tower, Rottweil](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9e/ThyssenKrupp_Test_Tower%2C_Rottweil.jpg)
During a period of expansion in 1978,
Thyssen AG
Thyssen was a major German steel producer founded by August Thyssen. The company merged with Friedrich Krupp AG Hoesch-Krupp to form ThyssenKrupp in 1999.
History
On 29 September 1891, August Thyssen and his brother Joseph Thyssen came to be i ...
entered the North American automotive industry with the acquisition of
Budd's automotive operations, which became the automotive division of Thyssen and operated in North America as Budd Thyssen, later ThyssenKrupp Budd Incorporated. In October 2006, ThyssenKrupp sold ThyssenKrupp Budd's North American body and chassis operations to
Martinrea International
Martinrea International Inc. is a Canadian auto parts manufacturer based in Vaughan, Ontario, Vaughan, Ontario. Its principal focus is on North America but it also operates in Europe and Asia.
Principal activities
Design and development of lightwe ...
Inc.
In 1988, ThyssenKrupp acquired German shock absorber manufacturer Bilstein, where it became a division until 2005, where it became a wholly owned subsidiary.
In 1991, ThyssenKrupp acquired German company
Hoesch AG.
In 1999, Thyssen (one of the companies of the merger to form Thyssenkrupp Elevator) acquired the
elevator
An elevator or lift is a wire rope, cable-assisted, hydraulic cylinder-assisted, or roller-track assisted machine that vertically transports people or freight between floors, levels, or deck (building), decks of a building, watercraft, ...
division of American-based conglomerate
Dover Corporation. Four years later, ThyssenKrupp acquired the Korean-based Dongyang Elevator.
In 2005, ThyssenKrupp acquired
Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft
Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft (often abbreviated HDW) is a German shipbuilding company, headquartered in Kiel. It is part of the ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems (TKMS) group, owned by ThyssenKrupp. The Howaldtswerke shipyard was founded in Kiel in 183 ...
(HDW) in
Kiel
Kiel () is the capital and most populous city in the northern Germany, German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 246,243 (2021).
Kiel lies approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the southeast of the J ...
from
One Equity Partners
One Equity Partners is a private equity firm with over $10 billion in assets under management which primarily deals with the industrial, healthcare and technology sectors in North America and Europe. One Equity Partners was the merchant banking a ...
.
One Equity Partners
One Equity Partners is a private equity firm with over $10 billion in assets under management which primarily deals with the industrial, healthcare and technology sectors in North America and Europe. One Equity Partners was the merchant banking a ...
holds 25% of the TKMS shares.
In December 2005, ThyssenKrupp acquired 60% of
Atlas Elektronik from
BAE Systems
BAE Systems plc (BAE) is a British multinational arms, security, and aerospace company based in London, England. It is the largest defence contractor in Europe, and ranked the seventh-largest in the world based on applicable 2021 revenues. ...
, with
EADS
Airbus SE (; ; ; ) is a European multinational aerospace corporation. Airbus designs, manufactures and sells civil and military aerospace products worldwide and manufactures aircraft throughout the world. The company has three divisions: '' ...
acquiring the remaining 40%.
In August 2007, ThyssenKrupp Materials North America acquired OnlineMetals.com, a small-quantity distributor of semi-finished metals and plastics based in Seattle, Washington.
In early 2008, ThyssenKrupp Aerospace acquired Apollo Metals and Aviation Metals, both suppliers to aerospace and defence based in
Kent, Washington
Kent is a city in King County, Washington, United States. It is part of the Seattle–Tacoma–Bellevue metropolitan area and had a population of 136,588 as of the 2020 census, making it the fourth-largest municipality in greater Seattle and t ...
.
In June 2012, ThyssenKrupp sold Thyssenkrupp Waupaca to KPS Capital Partners. ThyssenKrupp Waupaca is a tier two supplier to the automotive industry, located in Waupaca, Wisconsin.
In April 2014, ThyssenKrupp announced it was in talks to sell its Swedish maritime defence unit to
Saab after failing to agree deals with the Swedish government for a new generation of submarines.
ThyssenKrupp Access, the global manufacturer of home elevators, wheelchair lifts, and stairlifts, has tied up with Chennai-based Indian Company Elite Elevators. The company has launched luxury home elevators segments targeting
HNI
HNI Corporation is one of the largest office furniture manufacturers in the world in regard to revenues resulting from office segment sales. HNI is also the world's leading hearth products company, manufacturing and marketing gas, electric, wood ...
Clientele to launch high-end elevators in India.
In June 2018, Thyssenkrupp signed a final agreement with India's Tata Steel to establish a long-expected steel venture. The 50-50 joint venture will be called Thyssenkrupp Tata Steel and will be the second-largest steel producer in Europe, after ArcelorMittal.
[Reuters](_blank)
/ref>
Divestments and Restructures of Steel Business
Steel Europe
In September 2017, ThyssenKrupp and India-based Tata Steel
Tata Steel Limited is an Indian multinational steel-making company, based in Jamshedpur, Jharkhand and headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra. It is a part of the Tata Group.
Formerly known as Tata Iron and Steel Company Limited (TISCO), Tata ...
announced plans to combine their European steel-making businesses. The final agreement was signed in June 2018. The deal would have structured the European assets as ThyssenKrupp Tata Steel, a 50-50 joint venture headquartered in Amsterdam
Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...
and created the second-largest steel producer in Europe. The merger was finally prohibited by the EU Commission in 2019 for competitive concerns.
Steel Americas
In 2013, ThyssenKrupp sold its US steel business to ArcelorMittal
ArcelorMittal S.A. is a Luxembourgian multinational steel manufacturing corporation headquartered in Luxembourg City. It was formed in 2006 from the takeover and merger of Arcelor by Indian-owned Mittal Steel. ArcelorMittal is the second larg ...
and Nippon Steel
was formed in 2012 by the merger of the old Nippon Steel and Sumitomo Metal. was established in 1970 by the merger of Fuji Iron & Steel and Yawata Iron & Steel. Nippon Steel is the world's third largest steel producer by volume as of 2019.
...
for $1.55 billion. In February 2017, it agreed to sell its Brazilian steel business CSA to Ternium for €1.5 billion. These two transactions meant that Thyssenkrupp fully parted from the Steel Americas business.
On 11 May 2007, ThyssenKrupp AG invested €3.1 billion for a project consisting of building new carbon steel and stainless steel processing facilities in southern Alabama
(We dare defend our rights)
, anthem = "Alabama (state song), Alabama"
, image_map = Alabama in United States.svg
, seat = Montgomery, Alabama, Montgomery
, LargestCity = Huntsville, Alabama, Huntsville
, LargestCounty = Baldwin County, Al ...
that would employ 2,700 people. The project, along with a multibillion-dollar greenfield steel-making facility in Brazil, is a cornerstone of ThyssenKrupp's new global expansion strategy into the North American and NAFTA high-value carbon steel markets. The company announced that the investment was increased to $4.6 billion in 2010. As of the date of the announcement, the investment was the largest private economic development investment in Alabama's history and the largest by a German company in the U.S. The site selection announcement came after several months of competition involving several southeastern sites which were eventually narrowed between a site on the Mississippi River in Convent, Louisiana, and a site on the Tombigbee River, in Calvert, Alabama
Calvert is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Mobile and Washington counties, Alabama, United States. It is located in the extreme northeast corner of Mobile County and southeast corner of Washington County near the T ...
in North Mobile County, about 40 miles north of Mobile. The site in Alabama was eventually chosen. Groundbreaking on the Calvert facilities was held in November 2007. The carbon steel and stainless steel companies are independent and operate under different management teams. Co-locating both facilities on the same site enabled the company to optimize the investment in infrastructure and in some shared processing.
The carbon steel company, ThyssenKrupp Steel USA, which represented seventy percent of the overall project investment and hiring, consists of a hot strip mill, cold rolling mill, and four hot-dip galvanizing lines. The hot strip mill began operations in July 2010, the cold roll mill in September 2010, and the first of the hot-dip galvanizing lines in March 2011. The company projects to be fully operational in late 2011 and employ approximately 1,800 people at that time. ThyssenKrupp Stainless USA projects to employ approximately 900 people when fully operational in late 2012. At full production, ThyssenKrupp Steel USA will have the capacity to produce 4 million metric tons of carbon steel for NAFTA customers in the automotive, construction, appliance, pipe and tube, and service center industries. In July 2011, the carbon steel project was awarded "Best Greenfield Technology" by '' American Metal Market'', considered to be the longest continuously published newspaper in the metals industry. ThyssenKrupp Stainless USA built a cold roll mill and is in the process of building a melt shop.
Additionally, the Alabama State Port Authority
(We dare defend our rights)
, anthem = "Alabama (state song), Alabama"
, image_map = Alabama in United States.svg
, seat = Montgomery, Alabama, Montgomery
, LargestCity = Huntsville, Alabama, Huntsville
, LargestCounty = Baldwin County, Al ...
invested over $100 million to build a state-of-the-art transloading slab terminal on the southern tip of Pinto Island in Mobile Bay to service the inbound raw material slabs for the upriver carbon steel facility. Raw material slabs shipped to the Alabama facility from ThyssenKrupp CSA are transloaded from Panamax
Panamax and New Panamax (or Neopanamax) are terms for the size limits for ships travelling through the Panama Canal. The limits and requirements are published by the Panama Canal Authority (ACP) in a publication titled "Vessel Requirements". ...
ships at the terminal onto shallow draft barges for transport upriver to the facility. The terminal is equipped with three wide-span gantry cranes with state-of-the-art magnetic lifting gear designed by ThyssenKrupp, and it utilizes RFID
Radio-frequency identification (RFID) uses electromagnetic fields to automatically identify and track tags attached to objects. An RFID system consists of a tiny radio transponder, a radio receiver and transmitter. When triggered by an electromag ...
technology to read identifiers on each slab and provide up-to-date inventory records that include each slab's location and weight. The same magnetic technology is also used at ThyssenKrupp's Calvert facility. The terminal was necessary to Alabama's award of the project since the Tombigbee River depth and lack of turning basins prohibit deep draft ship navigation to the site in Calvert.
The world steel industry peaked in 2007, just as the company spent $12 billion to build the two most modern mills in the world, in Alabama and Brazil. The worldwide Great Recession started in 2008. Heavy cutbacks in construction combined with sharply lowered demand, and prices fell 40%. ThyssenKrupp lost $11 billion on its two new plants, which sold steel below the cost of production. ThyssenKrupp's stainless steel division, Inoxum, including the stainless portion of the US plant, was sold to Finnish stainless steel company Outokumpu
Outokumpu Oyj is a group of international companies headquartered in Helsinki, Finland, employing 10,600 employees in more than 30 countries. Outokumpu is the largest producer of stainless steel in Europe and the second largest producer in the A ...
in 2012. Finally in 2013, ThyssenKrupp offered the remaining portion of the plant for sale at under $4 billion. They sold it the following year for $1.55 billion.
In April 2015, ThyssenKrupp announced it would be investing more than €800 million in the North American region by 2020 to take advantage of the economy's reindustrialization.
ThyssenKrupp Tailored Blanks
In September 2012, ThyssenKrupp agreed to sell the automotive components manufacturer Tailored Blanks
A tailor is a person who makes or alters clothing, particularly in men's clothing. The Oxford English Dictionary dates the term to the thirteenth century.
History
Although clothing construction goes back to prehistory, there is evidence of ...
to the China-based Wuhan Iron and Steel Corporation
Wuhan Iron and Steel Corporation (WISCO) is a Chinese state-owned enterprise. It started to operate in 1958 in Qingshan, Wuhan, Hubei, China.
It was administrated by State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State C ...
for an undisclosed price. At the time of the agreement Tailored Blanks had annual sales of around 700 million euros and a global market share of about 40 percent in automotive laser-welded blanks.[
]
ThyssenKrupp Elevator
In February 2020, ThyssenKrupp AG's board announced that it would sell its elevator segment to Advent International, Cinven, and RAG foundation for $18.9 billion. The transaction closed in July 2020; stand-alone company is named TK Elevator
ThyssenKrupp AG (, ; stylized as thyssenkrupp) is a German industrial engineering and steel production multinational conglomerate. It is the result of the 1999 merger of Thyssen AG and Krupp and has its operational headquarters in Duisburg an ...
.
Financial data
Carbon footprint
ThyssenKrupp reported Total e emissions (Direct + Indirect) for the twelve months ending 30 September 2020 at 22,700 Kt (-1,400 /-5.8% y-o-y).[Alt URL]
/ref>
Employees
As of 2020, the company had over 100,000 employees worldwide. Following a financial struggle in 2020, and a loss of over €5.5 billion, ThyssenKrupp announced that it will be cutting over 11,000 jobs, 7,000 of which are located in Germany.
Products and sales
ThyssenKrupp generates 33% of its consolidated sales in its home market. The rest of the European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...
(EU) (28%) and the NAFTA
The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA ; es, Tratado de Libre Comercio de América del Norte, TLCAN; french: Accord de libre-échange nord-américain, ALÉNA) was an agreement signed by Canada, Mexico, and the United States that crea ...
region (21%) are the key trading partners for business and exports outside Germany.
Business areas
The operations are organized in five business areas:
* Components technology
* Elevator technology
* Industrial machinery
* Materials services
* Steel
Construction of the corporate headquarters began in 2007. The first buildings were complete in 2010; the second phase of the building was completed in June 2015. Situated in the west of Essen, the corporate campus was designed by Chaix & Morel et associeés (Paris) and JSWD Architekten (Cologne). Their design was selected for construction in an architectural design competition in 2006.
Controversies
Price fixing
In November 2006, five elevator
An elevator or lift is a wire rope, cable-assisted, hydraulic cylinder-assisted, or roller-track assisted machine that vertically transports people or freight between floors, levels, or deck (building), decks of a building, watercraft, ...
manufacturers, including ThyssenKrupp, were found guilty of price fixing by the EU, over nine years,["Elevator makers fined $1.3B for price-fixing" (news), Purchasing.com - Reed Business Information, Feb. 2007, webpage]
Purchcom-8053
along with competitors Otis Elevator Co., Schindler Group, Kone
Kone Oyj (; officially stylized as KONE and trading as KONE Corporation) is an elevator engineering company employing over 60,000 personnel across 60 countries worldwide. It was founded in 1910 and is now headquartered in Espoo near Helsinki, F ...
and Mitsubishi Elevator Europe. A few months later on 21 February 2007, ThyssenKrupp was fined €479 million by the EU (Otis was fined $US295 million).[ The EU Competition Commission reported that the companies had worked to rig bids for procurement contracts, share markets, and fix prices between at least 1995 and 2004.][ The Commission reported that the companies "did not contest the facts" found by EU regulators, noting none of the accused requested a hearing to answer the allegations. The fines totaled US$1.3 billion.][
In July 2012, the German Bundeskartellamt served fines totalling €124.5 million on ThyssenKrupp GfT Gleistechnik GmbH, Essen (€103m), Stahlberg Roensch GmbH, Seevetal, which since 2010 belongs to the Vossloh group (€13m), TSTG Schienen Technik GmbH & Co. KG, Duisburg, a subsidiary of the Voestalpine group (€4.5m) and Voestalpine BWG GmbH & Co. KG, Butzbach, another Voestalpine subsidiary (€4m) for price-fixing of steel railway lines and points blades supplied to Deutsche Bahn, the German state railway. According to Andreas Mundt, president of the Bundeskartellamt, "For many years the rail suppliers have guaranteed each other virtually constant shares of Deutsche Bahn's contract volume. The cartel members monitored compliance with the contract volume quotas, assigned each other projects, and set protective prices in order to steer the contract award process.” The proceedings had been triggered by an application for leniency filed by the Austrian company Voestalpine AG. Investigations into further companies are ongoing.
]
Turin plant fire and trial
On the early morning of 6 December 2007, an accident on the annealing and pickling line of the ThyssenKrupp plant in Turin
Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...
, Italy, caused the death of seven steelworker
Steel is an alloy made up of iron with added carbon to improve its strength and fracture resistance compared to other forms of iron. Many other elements may be present or added. Stainless steels that are corrosion- and oxidation-resistant ty ...
s.[The Thyssen Krupp Accident in Torino: Investigation Methods, Accident Dynamics and Lesson Learned 2012](_blank)
p 615-620
The accident happened between 00:45 and 00:48, when the eight workers that were then on duty attempted to extinguish a localized small pool fire with fire extinguishers and a fire hydrant, without success. Roughly 400L of hydraulic oil escaped during the rupture of a hydraulic circuit that caused a violent jet fire and engulfed the workers that were fighting the fire.
CEO Espenhahn has been charged by the State prosecutor of Turin with "voluntary multiple murder with possible malice" ("omicidio volontario multiplo con dolo eventuale"), while five other managers and executives have been charged with "culpable murder with conscious guilt". On Friday 15 April 2011, Espenhahn and all the other indictees were pronounced guilty of all charges; Espenhahn has been sentenced to 16 years and 6 months in jail and to a lifelong ban from holding public office. Prior to the court case, Espenhahn was transferred from Italy and is now believed to reside in Brazil. On 23 February 2013, the Appellate Court
A court of appeals, also called a court of appeal, appellate court, appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to hear an appeal of a trial court or other lower tribunal. In much of ...
changed the sentence for Espenhahn to culpable murder, not recognizing the voluntary murder, thus reducing the conviction. Convictions for the other managers were reduced as well.
In May 2016, the appeal court reduced the sentences for Espenhahn down to 9 years and 8 months, the other 5 managers (4 Italians and 1 German) between 6 and 7 years. Priegnitz the German manager, was sentenced to 6 years and 3 months. According to the bilateral laws between Germany and Italy, the convicted can serve the term in his home country and with accordance to this countries' laws. Since accounts of first-degree murder have been appealed down to aggravated negligent manslaughter, the German convicts are expecting further reductions that would eventually not exceed 5 years.
Bribery and conflict of interest
ThyssenKrupp is suspected of corruption in deals made in Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
, Turkey, South Africa and also in Pakistan, where the deal did not mature. In Greece, the defense minister was sentenced to prison for accepting a bribe from a consortium in which one of the members was ThyssenKrupp.
Incidents
ThyssenKrupp has been the victim of major, organised hacking attacks on several occasions, targeting the company's trade secrets.
On 8 December 2016, it was disclosed the company was attacked in February of that year. Internally uncovered in April 2016, it took their IT team around six months to fix. The hack is thought to have originated from South-East Asia and was successful in retrieving information from various departments, including the plant engineering division.
In 2012, ThyssenKrupp and other European companies have been attacked by Chinese hackers.
See also
* List of steel producers
* List of conglomerates
* List of elevator manufacturers
*Transrapid
Transrapid is a German-developed high-speed monorail train using magnetic levitation. Planning for the Transrapid system started in 1969 with a test facility for the system in Emsland, Germany completed in 1987. In 1991, technical readi ...
* Shanghai Maglev Train
*South African Arms Deal
The Strategic Defence Package, popularly known as the Arms Deal, was a major defence procurement programme undertaken to re-equip the South African armed forces for the post-apartheid era. It is commonly associated with the large-scale corruptio ...
* Dolphin-class submarine
*Eclipse (yacht)
M/Y ''Eclipse'' is a superyacht built by Blohm+Voss of Hamburg, Germany, the third longest afloat. Her exterior and interior were designed by Terence Disdale. The yacht is owned by Roman Abramovich, and was delivered on 9 December 2010. At long ...
References
* James, Harold. ''Krupp: A History of the Legendary German Firm''. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2012. .
Notes
External links
*
Thyssenkrupp System Engineering
Bilstein (international)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Thyssenkrupp
Conglomerate companies of Germany
Multinational companies headquartered in Germany
Steel companies of Germany
Steel companies of Italy
Conglomerate companies established in 1999
Manufacturing companies established in 1999
Vehicle manufacturing companies established in 1999
1999 establishments in Germany
German brands
Price fixing convictions
Companies in the MDAX