Thyssenkrupp Steel’s announcement late Thursday that it would make production cuts at its plant in the western German city of Duisburg has sparked anxiety and concern among local executives.
The Thyssenkrupp management announced that it would significantly reduce production capacity in Duisburg, also through “job losses that have not yet been quantified”.
Around 27,000 people currently work for thyssenkrupp Steel, Germany’s largest steel manufacturer and a division of the industrial giant thyssenkrupp. Around 13,000 of these employees are employed in Duisburg.
Union leaders responded on Friday that they would only discuss production cuts at the Duisburg plant if thyssenkrupp rules out compulsory layoffs well beyond March 2026, when a current job security contract expires.
The company said only that it hopes to continue to avoid layoffs even as production cuts are implemented.
“We demand the future instead of layoffs,” said the steel division’s works council leader, Tekin Nasikkol. “We won’t give in, we’ll draw red lines.”
Nasikkol said a general meeting had been called for April at the MSV Duisburg football stadium with a capacity of 31,500 seats.
“We will not accept that tens of thousands of people have to fear for their jobs,” said Knut Giesler, local spokesman for IG Metall.
Thyssenkrupp plans to reduce production capacity in Duisburg from the current 11.5 million tons per year to 9 to 9.5 million tons per year, a reduction of around 17 to 22%.
The production volumes in Duisburg also include the steel production of the Duisburg Hüttenwerke Krupp Mannesmann (HKM), which is 50% owned by thyssenkrupp Steel. Around 3,000 people work at HKM.
The economics minister of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, which includes Duisburg, described the news as “disappointing” for workers, the region and all of Germany.
Minister Mona Neubaur specifically pointed out that Thyssenkrupp had received billions of dollars in state support in recent years and called on the company to find a fair solution for the affected employees.
Germany was once a world leader in steel production, but in recent decades it has struggled with a steel industry that has often faced lower-cost competitors from overseas.
Neubaur said Thyssenkrupp must advance its plans to make its production processes more climate-friendly for a sustainable future.
A large planned construction program for the Duisburg site – the replacement of a blast furnace with a hydrogen-powered direct reduction plant and two smelting furnaces – should be pushed forward, she said.
The project was planned in coordination with the European Commission, she emphasized. Public subsidies cover around two thirds of the €3 billion price tag.
Giesler, the union leader, said Thyssenkrupp must explain how just nine months after receiving the grants it “announced a structural realignment that will impact thousands of jobs.”
Thyssenkrupp Steel announced that it would continue to convert production to climate-neutral steel production.
“The construction of the first direct reduction plant at the Duisburg site will continue to be implemented as planned with the support of the funding provided by the federal and state governments,” the company said.
According to the company, the goal of achieving completely climate-neutral production by 2045 at the latest also remains.