Thyssenkrupp cuts further 5,000 jobs to stave off coronavirus hit

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Ailing conglomerate Thyssenkrupp said on Thursday it would need to cut a further 5,000 jobs to ease the impact of the coronavirus crisis on its businesses.

“We’re not yet where we need to be. The next steps could be more painful than the previous ones. But we will have to take them,” Chief Executive Martina Merz said in a statement.

This brings total job cuts to 11,000, a third of which have already been realised under a previous programme.

The conglomerate, whose steelmaking roots go back more than 200 years, is struggling to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic that hit it during a cool down of the global economy.

Thyssenkrupp said it expects its adjusted operating loss to narrow to a mid triple digit million euro range in the fiscal year to September, compared with 1.6 billion euros ($1.9 billion) in 2019/20.

(Reporting by Christoph Steitz; editing by Thomas Seythal and Emma Thomasson)