Business
ThyssenKrupp sells American-based scaffold unit
German steelmaker ThyssenKrupp AG said it has sold its industrial services unit North American Safway Group to a private equity company based in New York, Odyssey Investment Partners LLC.
Thyssen, headquartered in Duesseldorf, did not disclose financial details.
Safway, based in Waukesha, Wis., and Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta, rents and erects scaffolding for the commercial construction industry and also provides services for large companies in the energy and industrial sectors.
Safway had sales of more than $700 million in 2008 and a work force of around 5,000 at more than 90 locations across the U.S. and Canada.
‘‘The new owner is very closely acquainted both with the business model and market environment of Safway,’’ Joachim Limberg, the chief executive of Thyssen’s materials services business, said in a statement.
ThyssenKrupp, Germany’s largest steelmaker, said it expected a large net loss for its 2008-2009 fiscal year
The company is in the process of building two new steel mills, one in Alabama and one in Brazil.
European steel makers called Monday on EU antitrust regulators to block a joint venture between the world’s No. 2 and No. 3 iron ore miners, BHP Billiton Ltd. and Rio Tinto PLC, that they claimed could hike prices for iron ore.
Eurofer — which represents ArcelorMittal SA, ThyssenKrupp AG and Corus Group — said the two companies’ plans to combine Australian iron ore operations would allow them to share information on output that could affect industry negotiations to set benchmark prices and volumes.
The steel makers said the deal ‘‘will have the same impact on the iron ore market’’ as a merger between the two miners.
Last year, BHP Billiton had made a hostile $68 billion bid for Anglo-Australian rival Rio Tinto. BHP Billiton abandoned the takeover attempt after EU regulators opposed it because they said it could harm competition. Rio Tinto also complained that it was undervalued in the bid.
The two miners are now planning a joint production project to pool all their iron ore assets in Western Australia state, a move that could save them billions of dollars. Australia’s BHP will also pay Rio Tinto $5.8 billion to equalize its contribution to the joint venture.
The deal rescues Rio Tinto after it scrapped a $19.5 billion deal with China’s Chinalco over Australian fears that the deal would give a foreign company a strategic stake in one of the country’s biggest industries. Rio’s balance sheet is weighed down by $38.7 billion in debt.
U.S. Steel Canada, formerly known as Stelco, is temporarily shutting down its Hamilton, Ont., mill and closing most of its Lake Erie operations, affecting up to 2,100 jobs, the Hamilton Spectator reported.
The move is driven by slumping demand in the steel sector and is a major blow to the southern Ontario industrial city, which has been hurt by earlier layoffs at the company and its rival, ArcelorMittal Dofasco Inc.
The paper said union leaders were notified of the plan by company officials Tuesday afternoon. The Canadian division of United States Steel Corp. was slated to formally announce the cuts later Tuesday.
The move could affect 2,100 workers although the precise total is not yet known.
The former Stelco mill at Hamilton, Ont., was acquired by U.S. Steel two years ago.
U.S. Steel Canada has already laid off almost 700 of 1,700 hourly employees in Hamilton, where it shut down its blast furnace in November.
The remaining operations at the Hamilton plant, including its steel finishing lines and coke ovens, will now be closed as well, said Rolf Gerstenberger, president of the United Steelworkers union at the plant.
All operations at Lake Erie Works, except for the coke ovens, will also close.
(Steel Talk is compiled from various sources and is edited by Business Editor Paul Giannamore. His e-mail address is pgiannamore@heraldstaronline.com.)
Facebook
MySpace
Digg
Stumble
Mixx
Fark
del.icio.us
LiveSpaces