The struggling steelmaker Thyssenkrupp Steel Europe has warned that around 1,200 jobs at its subsidiary Electrical Steel (tkES) in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, and in France are at risk due to mounting low-cost competition from Asia.
The company announced to Reuters on Thursday that production would be reduced and partially halted during the current fiscal year. Starting mid-December, plants in Gelsenkirchen and Isbergues, France, will be completely shut down until the end of the year. Furthermore, from January, the Isbergues site will operate at only 50 percent of its total capacity for at least four months. The company said it was responding to a sharp rise in low-priced imports, particularly from Asia.
The two sites produce grain-oriented electrical steel, a material widely used in the energy sector, such as in transformers for substations and wind turbines. The European market for electrical steel is under severe pressure, with unrestrained increases in import volumes at prices significantly below the average production costs within the EU. Imports have tripled since 2022 and surged by another 50 percent in 2025. These developments have led to a dramatic shift in order volumes, resulting in significant underutilization of European production facilities.
(Reporting by Tom Käckenhoff, Christoph Steitz; edited by Myria Mildenberger. For queries, please contact our editorial team at berlin.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for politics and economics) or frankfurt.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for companies and markets).)
