ThyssenKrupp: История и Деятельность Немецкого Концерна

German multinational conglomerate steel corporation

ThyssenKrupp AG ('/t//ɪ//s//ən//.//k//r//ʊ//p/, ; stylized as thyssenkrupp) is a German industrial engineering and steel production multinational conglomerate. It resulted from the 1999 merger of Thyssen AG and Krupp and has its operational headquarters in Duisburg and Essen. The company claims to be one of the world's largest steel producers, and it was ranked tenth largest worldwide by revenue in 2015. It is divided into 670 subsidiaries worldwide. The largest shareholders are the Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach Foundation and Cevian Capital. ThyssenKrupp's products range from machines and industrial services to high speed trains, elevators, and shipbuilding. The subsidiary ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems also manufactures frigates, corvettes, and submarines for the German and foreign navies. 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.

ThyssenKrupp is the result of a merger of two German steel companies, Thyssen AG founded in 1891 under the name Gewerkschaft Deutscher Kaiser and Krupp 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.

During a period of expansion in 1978, Thyssen AG 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 Inc. In 1988, ThyssenKrupp acquired German shock absorber manufacturer Bilstein, when it became a division until 2005, when 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 division of American based conglomerate Dover Corporation. Four years later, ThyssenKrupp acquired the Korean based Dongyang Elevator. In 2005, ThyssenKrupp acquired Howaldtswerke Deutsche Werft (HDW) in Kiel from One Equity Partners. One Equity Partners holds 25% of the TKMS shares. In December 2005, ThyssenKrupp acquired 60% of Atlas Elektronik from BAE Systems, with EADS 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. 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 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. On 1 October 2023 the firm will institute a green energy division, Decarbon Technologies, to develop its energy solutions.

In September 2017, ThyssenKrupp and India based Tata Steel 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 and created the second largest steel producer in Europe. The merger was finally prohibited by the EU Commission in 2019 for competitive concerns.

On 11 May 2007, ThyssenKrupp AG invested €3.1 billion (increased to $4.6 billion in 2010) for a project consisting of building new carbon steel and stainless steel processing facilities in Calvert, Alabama, about 40 miles north of Mobile. The project, along with a multibillion dollar greenfield steel making facility in Brazil, was a cornerstone of ThyssenKrupp's new global expansion strategy into the North American steel markets. The carbon steel and stainless steel companies were independent and operated 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. Additionally, the Alabama State Port Authority 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. The terminal was necessary 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 in 2012. Finally in 2013, ThyssenKrupp offered the remaining portion of the plant for sale at under $4 billion. They sold it to ArcelorMittal and Nippon Steel the following year 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.

In September 2012, ThyssenKrupp agreed to sell the automotive components manufacturer Tailored Blanks to the China based Wuhan Iron and Steel Corporation 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. 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, and the new stand alone company is named .

+Financial data in € billionsYear2013201420152016201720182019202020212022Revenue38.55941.30442.77839.26341.44742.74541.99628.88934.0241.14Net Income −1.589 0.009 0.279 0.2610.271 −0.060 −0.260 −5.5411.0450.975Assets35.30436.04535.69435.07235.04834.42636.47536.490Employees156,856160,745154,906156,487158,739161,096162,372103,598

ThyssenKrupp generates 33% of its consolidated sales in its home market. The rest of the European Union (EU) (28%) and the NAFTA region (21%) are the key trading partners for business and exports outside Germany.

In November 2006, five elevator manufacturers, including ThyssenKrupp, were found guilty of price fixing by the EU, over nine years, along with competitors Otis Elevator Co., Schindler Group, Kone 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 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. 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 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.

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.