ThyssenKrupp

History

2024

Lay off several thousand employees

At the end of February 2024, it became known that steel producer ThyssenKrupp, one of the largest industrial concerns in Germany, intends to reorganize. Within the framework of this program, thousands of employees will be reduced.

According to the Handelsblatt newspaper, the restructuring will affect the steel division of ThyssenKrupp. The headcount will be reduced by at least 5,000 people. At the same time, the production capacity of the enterprise will decrease to 8-9 million tons per year compared to 11.5 million tons, which the company provided as of 2023. Moreover, the CEO of ThyssenKrupp, Miguel Lopez, even proposed to the management of the steel division to reduce capacity to 6.5 million tons per year.

Unsplash

According to Handelsblatt, the large-scale reorganization program was codenamed Stream. It is noted that ThyssenKrupp is going to close at least one blast furnace and two rolling mills at its large steel plant in Duisburg. As of the beginning of 2024, the capacity of this plant was not fully loaded due to a decrease in demand for products in various industries, including the automotive sector. The decrease in steel prices also has a negative impact on the business. At the same time, the division is struggling with an economic downturn and high prices for energy and raw materials.

Before the reorganization, about 27 thousand people worked in the steel division of ThyssenKrupp, of which approximately 13 thousand were in Duisburg. Thus, the layoffs will affect about one in five employees of the corresponding group. The company operates four blast furnaces at the Duisburg plant, which will gradually be replaced by more environmentally friendly steel production systems.^[1]

Plant shutdown due to massive cyber attack

At the end of February 2024, one of the world's largest steel producers, ThyssenKrupp, announced a large-scale cyber attack on its IT infrastructure. Due to the hacker invasion, it was necessary to stop the German plant in Saar, which employs more than 1,000 specialists.

ThyssenKrupp supplies products for a variety of fields including mechanical engineering, automotive, industrial production, renewable energy and construction. The company said in a statement that the car body division, Automotive Body Solutions, was affected by the cyber attack. IT specialists were able to identify suspicious activity at an early stage and promptly take the necessary security measures. However, some applications and systems were disabled in order to minimize possible consequences.

The company clarifies that no other business units or segments were affected during the hacker invasion. ThyssenKrupp is in control, and experts are working to gradually restore the affected services. As of the end of February 2024, it is not specified which cyber group may be involved in organizing the attack. In addition, there is no information about whether the ransomware was introduced into the ThyssenKrupp IT infrastructure.

Our ThyssenKrupp Automotive Body Solutions division has detected unauthorized access to its IT infrastructure. Experts are working to contain the threat, "BleepingComputer quoted company representatives as saying.

The affected ThyssenKrupp facility in Saarland is involved in steel production and processing and research and development, including collaborations with industry partners, various institutes and universities.^[2]

Krastsvetmet bought out Russian business ThyssenKrupp

On February 26, 2024, it became known that the Krasnoyarsk Non-Ferrous Metals Plant named after V.N. Gulidov (Krastsvetmet) bought out the Russian business of steel producer Thyssenkrupp. The value of the transaction as of the specified date has not been disclosed.

According to Interfax, Krastsvetmet became the owner of 99% in the authorized capital of the engineering company Tissenkrupp Industrial Solutions (RUS). The remaining 1% went to JSC "Axion - Rare and Precious Metals," which belongs to "Krastsvetmet." It is assumed that the acquired asset will provide additional opportunities for building competencies and capacities in the field of technology, design, equipment, construction and project management.

Unsplash

Tissenkrupp Industrial Solutions (RUS) operates a complex of buildings in Dzerzhinsk with a developed IT infrastructure: this, in particular, is specialized software for design tasks. In addition, the enterprise has an additional engineering office in St. Petersburg. The state at the end of February 2024 is approximately 350 people. The company is engaged in the design and construction of chemical, petrochemical and industrial plants, the extraction and processing of minerals, the transshipment and storage of bulk cargo, as well as the production of cement.

Representatives of Krastsvetmet note that due to the current geopolitical situation in Russia, the issues of replacing technologies, equipment and services that were previously provided by foreign companies remain relevant. The acquisition of Tissenkrupp Industrial Solutions (RUS) will help in the development of the relevant direction. We are talking about engineering work to create and modernize the production of ammonia, methanol, urea, nitric acid, ammonium nitrate, lithium carbonate.^[3]

2022: Cyber attacks on headquarters and one of the units

On December 20, 2022, ThyssenKrupp reported a cyber attack on its Materials Services and corporate headquarters. The form of the cyber attack was not revealed by the German industrial giant.

A spokesman only told France-Presse that Thyssenkrupp was the target of an organized cyber attack and that there was no indication that the data had been stolen or altered.

ThyssenKrupp reports cyber attack on its Materials Services and corporate headquarters

It was a professional attack that could come from Southeast Asia. According to our analysis, the attack procedure was aimed mainly at stealing technological know-how and research results in the field of industrial solutions. In addition, the systems of the Steel Europe business district were used, "ThyssenKrupp said in a statement.

According to France-Presse, the hacker attack was noticed at an early stage by employees of the Thyssenkrupp cybersecurity service, and as of December 20, 15:00 Moscow time, actions are being taken to limit the attack and stop it. No other ThyssenKrupp units were affected by the attack.

The cyber attack on ThyssenKrupp is another example of growing risks for industrial organizations and the global supply chain! Cyber risks in 2022 are spreading from the energy and utilities sector to the manufacturing sector! For example, in steel production and heavy industry - this is necessary in an attempt to cause massive chaos in the market. Accelerating the implementation of preventive cybersecurity capabilities should be a key priority for industrial organizations and critical infrastructure operators in 2023, said Duncan Greatwood, chief executive officer of IT security company Xage Security.

No cybercriminal group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack as of December 23. Given the mention of limiting the attack, the obvious candidate according to France-Presse may be a ransomware virus, but until more detailed information is provided, this is a pure assumption.

ThyssenKrupp has already been the target of cyber attacks in the past. In 2016, the company was hacked as part of a corporate espionage case that stole trade secrets. Hackers stole design data from the plant design unit. In 2012, ThyssenKrupp came under attack, which at that time was called "heavy" and "exceptional quality." As with the 2016 attack, the alleged motivation for the attack was industrial espionage.^[4]

2020

Dismissal of 11 thousand employees due to COVID-19

In mid-November 2020, the German industrial concern published performance indicators for the last financial year. Despite the fact that the company managed to achieve a certain stabilization of the business amid the crisis associated with the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, it is still forced to cut 11 thousand employees.

Over the last financial year, ThyssenKrupp achieved a net profit of €9.6 billion, including a profit from the sale of the elevator business of around €15 billion, compared with a net loss of €260 million in the previous financial year, while revenue from sales declined 15% year-on-year to €28.9 billion. The company had orders of 28.2 billion euros, down 17% from the previous financial year.

ThyssenKrupp fires 11 thousand employees due to coronavirus

Thanks to the immediate measures to combat the COVID-19 coronavirus, which were launched at the beginning of the fiscal year, the company has made significant progress in transforming the company, Thyssenkrupp said. In May 2019, the industrial conglomerate announced the reduction of 6 thousand jobs over the next three years. As a result of the restructuring started and partially carried out last year, about 3,600 jobs have already been cut. To ease the impact of the crisis on its business, the company sees the need to further reduce a total of 11,000 jobs. An additional 7,400 jobs will be cut over the next three years.

The coronavirus pandemic is a serious stress test for Thyssenkrupp. Our top priority remains protecting our employees and our business. Despite the headwinds, we have achieved important milestones in the transformation of the group. In particular, our strengthened balance sheet gives us the flexibility to systematically follow the further necessary steps envisaged by our plan for the future of Thyssenkrupp. But we're not where we should be yet. The next steps may be more painful than the previous ones. But we will have to take them, "said Thyssenkrupp CEO Martina Merz.[5]

ThyssenKrupp sells its elevator business for more than $17bn

Industrial conglomerate ThyssenKrupp says it has successfully completed the sale of its elevator business for $17.2 billion. Go in detail.

1928

15,000 ton hydraulic forging hammer, Krupp factory, Germany 1928.

Notes