By Adria Calatayud
Thyssenkrupp said it agreed with India's Jindal Steel International to halt talks on a potential deal for a stake in the German industrial conglomerate's steel unit, citing recent changes in the business and the regulatory environment.
The decision is the latest instance of Thyssenkrupp hitting pause on its attempts to exit steelmaking after more than two centuries in the business.
Jindal in September 2025 made a nonbinding bid for Thyssenkrupp's steel unit and outlined a plan to make its European steelmaking operations more competitive, but labor representatives at the German group recently signaled that discussions had stalled.
The original assumptions for a potential sale of Thyssenkrupp Steel significantly changed in recent months, but establishing an autonomous steel business remains a midterm goal for Thyssenkrupp, the German company said Saturday when disclosing the pause in the discussions. Thyssenkrupp said it might retain a stake in the business once it becomes independent.
Thyssenkrupp cited a recently-concluded collective restructuring agreement with metalworkers union IG Metall, a deal with Salzgitter on the future of its southern Duisburg site in Germany and trade-protection measures adopted by the European Union that address some of the most pressing challenges facing the steel industry.
"Now that we have reached an agreement in principle within our own company, with labor unions, and with policymakers in Germany and Europe, the conditions for the profitable continuation of thyssenkrupp Steel [are] better than they have been in a long time," Thyssenkrupp Chief Executive Miguel Lopez said.
Both companies said that they had held constructive negotiations, but that they jointly decided to suspend them.
"Even though we have decided to pause the deal for the time being we remain connected in friendship and our shared goal remains to work on building low-carbon steel production in Europe," Jindal's director of European operations, Narendra Misra, said.
Thyssenkrupp has long sought to sell its steel unit in a bid to simplify its sprawling portfolio. The business weighed on the group's profitability in recent years, as it struggled with competition from lower-cost Chinese rivals, subdued demand and President Trump's tariffs.
The company said it would continue to restructure the business to prepare it for profitability, adding that the current backdrop was more promising.
Thyssenkrupp made several attempts in recent years to sell the steel business that proved unsuccessful for different reasons.
Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky's EP Group last year withdrew from talks for a possible 50-50 joint venture for the unit, Steel Europe, after Jindal emerged as a suitor. EP Group had bought a 20% stake in the business in July 2024 with the goal of raising its ownership to 50%, but later agreed to sell it back to Thyssenkrupp.
Talks with Britain-based Liberty Steel Group fell through in 2021, and a prior deal with India's Tata Steel was blocked by European Union competition authorities in 2019.
Write to Adria Calatayud at adria.calatayud@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
05-04-26 0217ET
