FRANKFURT, Germany -- Heavy industry giant ThyssenKrupp (IW 1000/81) said today that it had posted deep net losses in the third quarter of its business year.
The group, whose fiscal year runs from Oct. 1 to Sept. 30, booked a net loss of 362 million euros ($481 million) for its fiscal third quarter, which ended June 30.
ThyssenKrupp said in a statement that it expected sales to improve in the fourth quarter but to slip for the year compared to the previous fiscal year, in which it reported 40.1 billion euros in turnover.
ThyssenKrupp, Germany's top steel producer, also confirmed that the sale of its U.S. and Brazilian activities was taking "longer than expected" but hoped that it could be completed soon.
The group has said that unloading its loss-making Steel Americas business is a top priority.
German Steel Market Flagging
Germany, Europe's biggest crude steel maker, is set to produce less this year than in 2012 amid a struggling world market, its steel federation said Friday, lowering its forecast.
Steel production is expected "in all probability" to fall 1% in 2013 from last year, to 42.2 million tons, the WVS federation said.
It also said steel production in Germany, which is also the seventh-biggest producer of crude steel in the world, saw a 5.4% drop in July compared to 2012, its sixth fall in a row.
Earlier this month, Germany's second-biggest steel producer, Salzgitter, issued a results warning for this year, citing a somber outlook for the market and a structural crisis in the European sector resulting mainly from recession having hit some countries.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2013
