Dr Heinrich Hiesinger CEO of ThyssenKrupp AG has taken a seat, like his predecessor, on the Executive Committee of the worldsteel association.

At the worldsteel annual conference in Paris, Dr Hiesinger expressed the hope that European governments would succeed in responding decisively to the uncertainties on the financial markets as quickly as possible. It will only be possible to make reliable forecasts in particular for the core European and NAFTA markets when a solution is in sight to the financial market crisis in Europe. Facts and figures on the recently ended 2010-11 fiscal year will be communicated at ThyssenKrupp’s annual press conference in Essen on December 6th 2011.

For the German steel industry, Mr Hans Jürgen Kerkhoff president of the German Steel Federation Wirtschaftsvereinigung Stahl said that yesterday in Paris that although economic prospects had clouded in recent weeks, he did not expect any fundamental reversal of the previous positive trends on the German and international steel markets. This assessment is in line with worldsteel’s Short Range Outlook for 2012, which predicts 5.4% growth in global steel output, with China still the main driving force.