Company News Feb 16, 2001 1:00 AM
Response to the reports of a forthcoming merger between Usinor and Arbed
ThyssenKrupp Steel welcomes every contribution to a further consolidation and restructuring of the European steel market. This applies equally to the stainless sector and flat-rolled carbon steel products. Further cooperation between the European steel producers will lead to an even better coordination of capacities and an improved balancing out of the relationship between supply and demand, which is characterized by cyclical imbalances.
ThyssenKrupp Steel, which in its leading market positions feels strengthened rather than threatened by the possible new alliance between two major competitors, can only profit both directly and indirectly from the proposed cooperation, especially as talks conducted with the French group in the past showed that a cooperative venture, also possible in principle, would have faced considerable objections under competition law and furthermore such an alliance would not have made an optimum fit with the strategy pursued by ThyssenKrupp AG and ThyssenKrupp Steel.