Thyssenkrupp, Germany, announces that it has agreed to the merger of its steelmaking business with India’s Tata Steel, making the merged firm Europe’s second biggest steelmaker.
Conceived to take on the flood of cheap Chinese steel that is unbalancing world markets, the merged firm known as “Thyssenkrupp Tata Steel” will be based in the Netherlands. The 50/50 joint venture will be second only to ArcelorMittal in the European steel industry.
Company officers anticipate that the merger, which took more than two years to negotiate, will enable savings of between $468 and $585 million per year. The merged firm will have about 48,000 employees spread around 34 sites, producing about 21 million metric tons of steel per year, with revenues of ~$17 billion.
“The joint venture not only addresses the challenges of the European steel industry,” says Thyssenkrupp CEO Heinrich Hiesinger. “It is also the only way to create significant additional value of around five billion euros for both Thyssenkrupp and Tata Steel due to joint synergies that cannot be realized in a stand-alone scenario.”
According to Tata Steel Chairman Natarajan Chandrasekaran, “This is a significant milestone for Tata Steel and we remain fully committed to the long-term interest of the joint venture company. We are confident that this company will create value for all stakeholders.”
https://phys.org/news/2018-06-thyssenkrupp-tata-europe-biggest-steelmaker.html#jCp
