17 September 2025 – The German group thyssenkrupp is reported to have received a takeover offer from India, but many questions and concerns remain. German steelmaker with new chairman of the supervisory board. EU Commission faces two votes of no confidence in October.
- German steelmaker with new chairman of the supervisory board
- thyssenkrupp Steel Europe receives takeover offer from India
- European Commission facing new votes of no confidence
- EU Safeguard: Italian association rejects successor measure
- Japan launches anti-dumping investigation against stainless steel from Taiwan and China
German steelmaker with new chairman of the supervisory board
Heiko Maas, the former German Foreign Minister, is becoming the new chairman of the supervisory board of the two Saarland steel producers Dillinger Hüttenwerke and Saarstahl.
Former German foreign minister left behind many unresolved issues
Whether the former SPD minister will really bring a breath of fresh air into the two steelmakers remains to be seen. During his time as Federal Foreign Minister in Angela Merkel’s government, Heiko Maas, according to media reports, left behind many unresolved issues and diplomatic blunders. Conceptually, his term of office generated hardly any impulses.
Circumventing US sanctions against Iran
By circumventing US sanctions against Iran, he had already made himself unpopular with the first Trump administration. During the Afghanistan disaster, too, the then foreign minister preferred to ride his bicycle rather than take seriously the warnings received the previous day from the US intelligence service CIA and respond to the rapidly changing conditions in Afghanistan.
The two German steelmakers may, however, hope that with Maas’s social democratic background they will gain better access to further subsidies and other economic advantages from Saarbrücken, Berlin and Brussels. That Saarland’s steel industry is happy to rely on former SPD politicians in its leadership decisions had already been demonstrated in the past.
thyssenkrupp Steel Europe receives takeover offer from India
The thyssenkrupp share price has seen strong gains in recent days after it became known that the large Indian steelmaker Jindal Steel & Power, via a subsidiary, is said to have made a takeover offer for thyssenkrupp’s virtually unsellable German steel division.
Jindal Steel relies on CO2-intensive steel production
Media reports highlight, among other things, that this is a growth-oriented group with access to its own raw materials and know-how in the green transformation. Surprisingly, however, there is no mention, as is usually the case, of the massive capacity expansions and overcapacities in steel production. Jindal Steel alone has announced or is already building more than 33 million tonnes of CO₂-intensive blast furnace capacity. By 2026, the group’s crude steel capacity is expected to rise to almost 16 million tonnes per year.
thyssenkrupp merger has failed once before
As early as 2018/2019, there was an attempt to merge the German steel giant with an Indian company. The deal between Tata Steel and thyssenkrupp, however, failed due to the competition authorities of the European Commission, who saw a market-dominant position and considerable pricing power in such a merger. The failed merger even went before the European Court of Justice, which ultimately ruled the decision of the EU competition watchdogs to be lawful.
Otherwise too, the takeover of a supposedly system-relevant domestic steelmaker by a non-European group does not currently fit with the prevailing political mood in the European Union. Recently, India has also moved away from Europe in foreign policy rather than closer.
European Commission facing new votes of no confidence
Ursula von der Leyen and her Commission will face two votes of no confidence in October. After there was already a motion of no confidence from right-conservative circles against the current Commission in June 2025, the new motions come from the Patriots for Europe group and the group The Left. The current motions of no confidence concern, among other things, failures of the Commission in current migration policy, the largely failed European Green Deal, and the results of the EU-US customs agreement.
EU Safeguard: Italian association rejects successor measure
The Italian association Assofermet has, in a letter to the European Commission, openly opposed a possible successor to the EU safeguard measure on certain steel products. Other measures, such as the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) and considerations on the introduction of a possible Melt & Pour rule in the EU, would also involve significant risks and could lead to considerable disruptions in the European economy.
Japan launches anti-dumping investigation against stainless steel from Taiwan and China
The Japanese government has launched an anti-dumping (AD) investigation into imports of cold-rolled sheets, strips and foils of nickel-based stainless steel originating in China and Taiwan. The investigation was prompted by applications from major domestic steelmakers, including Nippon Steel Corporation, who expressed concerns about imports of products at dumping prices significantly below fair market levels.
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