The European bellweather engineering and industrial group reported on the 9th November that consolidated earnings for the full year 2000/2001 are around E850 million, compared to a prior year period result of E1.1 billion.

Due to the weakness of the world economy, the E37.9 billion of sales for this financial year were only up 1.8% on the prior period.

Looking forward, the Supervisory Board of ThyssenKrupp do not expect to see an economic recovery before the later part of 2002, consequently it is not envisaged that growth will exceed the current year result.

It is anticipated that the first two quarters of the new fiscal year will probably be particularly difficult, especially for the Steel and Automotive activities.

In the carbon steel sector, the board expects the low point of the cycle in the winter of 2001/2002.

To counteract the downturn in business levels, production is being cut further than originally planned and will lead to some short-time working.

The board commented in their press release “a 1st quarter loss for the Group cannot be ruled out”.

In view of the above results and the rather gloomy outlook, the dividend payable to shareholders is being cut by 20%.