ThyssenKrupp

ThyssenKrupp is a global integrated materials and technology group with almost 188,000 employees in more than 80 countries developing ideas and innovations to offer solutions for sustainable progress. In the 2008/2009 fiscal year they generated sales of more than €40 billion. Eight business areas focus the Group's activities and know-how in the strategic competency areas of Materials and Technologies. In addition to manufacturing materials and plants, the Group also provides complete system solutions and innovative services.

The Materials division focuses the Group's worldwide materials activities:

• The Steel Europe business area brings together our premium flat carbon steel activities, from intelligent material solutions to finished parts. The product range includes custom tailored products made from steel sheets of different thickness, grade and finish.
• The Steel Americas business area will develop the American market for high-quality steel products. It includes the steelmaking and processing plants currently under construction in Brazil and the USA.
• As a leading global supplier of stainless steel, the Stainless Global business area specializes in flat stainless steel products and high-performance materials such as nickel alloys and titanium. The business area also includes the new stainless steel mill in Alabama, which is being built in close cooperation with Steel Americas.
• The Materials Services business area is focused on materials services all around the world, and particularly in Europe and the NAFTA region. Through integrated supply chain management, carbon and stainless steel, titanium, aluminum and plastics are supplied to customers on schedule and prepared for further processing.

The Technologies division brings together ThyssenKrupp's technological capabilities.

• The Elevator Technology business area with its elevators, escalators, moving walks, passenger boarding bridges and stair lifts, keeps the world in motion. High quality, technological competencies and services such as maintenance and modernization secure the business area's market position and provide new opportunities for growth.
• Plant Technology is a leading international supplier of chemical plants, refineries, cement plants and innovative solutions for the mining and handling of raw materials and minerals. The business area's plants and processes open up new possibilities for environmental protection and sustainable development.
• Components Technology has a broad and successful product range of efficient and innovative components for the automotive, construction and engineering sectors.
• The Marine Systems business area offers expertise, outstanding products and strong innovative capabilities in the area of naval and civil shipbuilding – from fuel cell technology for submarines to sophisticated research vessels.

ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems (TKMS)

With its know-how, products and innovative strength, Marine Systems sets global standards in naval and civil shipbuilding and ranks among the leading system suppliers in the international shipbuilding industry. Together with their subsidiaries in Germany and abroad, the companies of ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems are the product of a long shipbuilding tradition, in some cases reaching back hundreds of years, a tradition characterized by innovative developments and high technological standards.

Today the activities of ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems focus on the development and building of submarines and surface naval vessels, civil shipbuilding, ship repair and conversion, and services. More than 8,000 employees of ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems in Germany, Greece and Sweden as well as in the distribution subsidiaries in the whole world are facing the differing challenges with great commitment. They are all qualified for their respective tasks. This is ensured through various measures for schooling and continued advanced training.

As management holding company, Hamburg-based ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems parents the new shipyard group, bundling staff and service functions which are furnished to the various companies. Essentially, the group comprised TKMS Blohm + Voss Nordseewerke Gmbh, Emden and Hamburg, Blohm + Voss Shipyards GmbH, and Blohm + Voss Repair GmbH, Hamburg, as well as Kockums AB, Sweden, Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft GmbH, Kiel, and Hellenic Shipyards S.A., Greece.

The 2002 acquisition of the German shipyard HDW by One Equity Partners (OEP), a US institutional investor, led to fears of a sellout of the German arms industry. These fears were ameliorated somewhat in 2004, when HDW was merged with the shipyards of Thyssen Krupp, with OEP?s stake reduced to 25 percent.

In December 2006 KMW acquired the Defense Division of Blohm + Voss. In March 2007 Krauss-Maffei Wegmann GmbH & Co KG (KM), a joint venture between Wegmann & Co GmbH Kg and Krauss-Maffei AG, a unit of the Krauss-Maffei AG subsidiary of Vodafone Group PLC's Mannesman AG unit, acquired the Blohm & Voss AG from ThyssenKrupp AG.

On 14 April 2010 Abu Dhabi MAR, the international shipbuilding group based in Abu Dhabi, and ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems (TKMS) signed a a deal with Abu Dhabi MAR Group for the German industrial conglomerate's exit from civil shipbuilding and shift its focus to constructing military vessels. ThyssenKrupp had repeatedly expressed its intention to scale down its civil shipbuilding operations, citing global overcapacity and a steep decline in new orders as a result of the economic crisis. Abu Dhabi MAR emerged on the local shipbuilding scene in 2008, when it announced it was rebuilding two former Dutch frigates that had been in the UAE Navy into some of the longest private yachts for VVIP clients. The company’s managing director is Iskandar Safa, who is also the owner of CMN, a major shipbuilder in Normandy, France. CMN has extensive commercial ties with Abu Dhabi’s shipbuilding sector, having been subcontracted by Abu Dhabi Ship Building to produce the first of six 72-meter Baynunah-class corvettes for the UAE Navy.

ThyssenKrupp sold the Hamburg-based mega yachts shipyard Blohm + Voss, as well as the civil shipbuilding activities of Kiel-based HDW Gaarden to Abu Dhabi Mar. ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems (TKMS) remained tied to the Emden location: TKMS Blohm + Voss Nordseewerke will retain their shipbuilding expertise in the naval surface vessel and submarine engineering sectors as well as in the repair and outfitting sector at the Emden location. In the course of the year 2010, it was intended to combine the naval surface ship engineering sector in Emden with the activities at the Hamburg location in a single company and to continue the activities at both locations, and to separate the submarine engineering section in Emden to become a branch of Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft in Kiel.

With the restructuring of the Emden location, an important contribution to consolidate the shipbuilding activities – especially in the naval surface ship sector – was successfully completed. The adjustment of the production capacities of the individual companies of ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems as a result of the global economic recession and the existing excess shipbuilding capacities required the concentration on the core business.

Nordseewerke GmbH makes wind farm equipment for its new owner SIAG Schaaf Industrie. On March 8, 2010 the sale of the production equipment of the Emden-based company TKMS Blohm + Voss Nordseewerke became effective: SIAG Schaaf Industrie AG took over ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems in Emden and, under the name of SIAG Nordseewerke GmbH, will further increase their ability to produce towers, machinery frames and foundation structures for offshore wind power plants.

ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems announced a “close strategic partnership” and Memorandum of Understanding with the Abu Dhabi MAR group in the United Arab Emirates. The MoU stipulated a 50/50 joint venture to build naval surface ships. At the same time, Abu Dhabi MAR acquired 80% of TKMS’ key surface ship firms:

Hellenic Shipyards, with related capabilities, was sold to Abu Dhabi MAR. ThyssenKrupp had acquired HSY in 2005, as part of its contract to deliver 4 U214 submarines to the Greek Navy, and the acquisition by Abu Dhabi MAR gave it a submarine construction capability. The Greek government was in default on the U-214 contract. ThyssenKrupp AG (TKA.XE) said 2 May 2010 it expected to be able to sell its Greek unit Hellenic Shipyard, or HSY, to shipbuilding group Abu Dhabi MAR by the end of the current fiscal year. ThyssenKrupp Chief Executive Officer Ekkehard Schulz said framework agreements with Abu Dhabi Mar and the Greek government have already been concluded on the matter. ThyssenKrupp's fiscal year ends Sept. 30.

Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft (HDW) remained wholly in TKMS. Kockums AB was not sold.