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Friday, December 2, 2011

ThyssenKrupp calls snap news conference for Friday

Fri Dec 2, 2011

FRANKFURT/DUESSELDORF Dec 2 (Reuters) - ThyssenKrupp , Germany's largest steelmaker, called a snap news conference for 1300 GMT on Friday following a meeting of the group's supervisory board, it said.

German business daily Financial Times Deutschland reported on Friday that Steel Americas chief executive Hans Fischer would leave the company after arriving in February from domestic rival Salzgitter.

The FTD and Handelsblatt both said the board was unhappy with continued problems in the new Brazilian carbon steel slab mill, which have already cost the job of senior steel manager Karl-Ulrich Koehler.

The slab plant near Rio de Janeiro known as CSA, with an annual capacity of over 5 million metric tonnes, chose the cheaper Chinese firm Citic over ThyssenKrupp's own plant engineer to build the steelmill's three coking plant batteries -- a move that lead to mistakes in the construction, Handelsblatt said.

The coking plant, which produces coking coal used to make pig iron in the blast furnace, generates coke oven gas in the process. This byproduct is typically used to drive turbines that then fuel the steel mill.

As a result of CSA's coke plant battery problems, the energy-intensive slab production may need to buy electricity.

Citing sources at ThyssenKrupp, Handelsblatt reported Citic agreed to pay damages, but the two companies have not agreed on the amount.
(sourced Reuters)

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