Thyssenkrupp shuts down the Galmed steel plant in Spain

German concern Thyssenkrupp has announced the closure of the Galmed steel plant (FBA9) located near Valencia, Spain. This is reported by Kallanish with reference to the company’s data.

The steel plant’s capacity is estimated at 450 thousand tons of hot-rolled galvanized coils per year. The products are mainly shipped to the automotive industry.

«The measures were taken amid significant deterioration in the European automotive market and, as a result, a decline in demand for galvanized steel products in Spain and Southern Europe. Thyssenkrupp conducted a detailed analysis of the profitability of its ten galvanizing lines and the results showed that the closure of FBA9 is inevitable,» the company said in a statement.

The capacity of the FBA9 production unit is no longer being utilized to a significant extent, and this trend will increase in the short term. It will not be economically feasible to use this line in the near future.

The Galmed plant will be shut down within the next 12 months. All employees of the unit (120 people) will be offered alternative jobs, in particular in the battery division of the Volkswagen Group, PowerCo.

In 2013, Thyssenkrupp already shut down the FBA9 plant and laid off 165 employees due to low market demand. In 2016, the company reopened the plant amid mass protests and political pressure.

As GMK Center reported earlier, in early 2023, Thyssenkrupp resumed its attempts to spin off its steel division, a plan that had previously been frozen due to unsuccessful attempts to register, sell or find a merger partner for Europe’s second-largest steel producer.

Among the potential buyers is Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky. The company is in talks to sell 50% of its steel division to Kretinsky.