ThyssenKrupp Steel AG welcomes the agreement reached by the collective bargaining parties in the steel industry, preventing a strike. According to TKS, industrial action would have severely dented hopes of an urgently needed economic turnaround.

After long intensive negotiations, a compromise 12-month deal involving a 3.5% wage increase from September 1, 2005 and a once-only payment of €500 for the months April to August has been accepted.

The special payment in particular is an instrument that takes into account the high volatility of the steel industry. In the past two fiscal years, ThyssenKrupp Steel has already made voluntary payments of €250 and €500 per employee, and other German steel companies have paid similar amounts. This was ThyssenKrupp Steel’s way of recognizing the continuous upswing of recent years. Fiscal year 2003/2004, which was dominated by the boom in China, was the first time that the Steel segment had actually created value for the ThyssenKrupp Group. None of the experts worldwide had predicted a steel boom on this scale.

In the current economic environment ThyssenKrupp Steel regards the settlement as painful and nearly justifiable in order not to jeopardize supplies to customers.