Thyssenkrupp : to cut CO2 emissions by 30% over next decade

DUESSELDORF, Germany (Reuters) - German submarines-to-elevators conglomerate Thyssenkrupp said on Tuesday that it planned to drastically cut its carbon dioxide emissions over the next decade, banking on more efficient ways to produce steel, one of its trademark products.

"We want to cut our emissions by 30% by 2030 across the entire business," Chief Technology Officer Reinhold Achatz told Reuters. "By 2050 we want to be carbon neutral."

Thyssenkrupp, Europe's second largest steelmaker after ArcelorMittal, produces 20 million tonnes of CO2 a year, equivalent to a 2.6 gigawatt power plant running on lignite, or brown coal, the dirtiest generation technology.

Thyssenkrupp has said that fully freeing its steelmaking operations from CO2 emissions - in a response to stricter environmental rules and higher costs for emission rights - would cost 10 billion euros (£9 billion).

The company, based in the western German city of Essen, also wants to reduce CO2 emissions generated by its products by 16% through 2030, said Achatz, adding that improving environmental performance was a promising business opportunity.

"We see huge business potential for our various technologies for reducing emissions. This market is worth billions," Achatz told Reuters.

(Reporting by Tom Kaeckenhoff and Christoph Steitz; Writing by Douglas Busvine; Editing by Michelle Martin)