Jindal arm offers to buy Thyssenkrupp steel unit

Jindal Steel International has made a non-binding offer to buy Thyssenkrupp Steel Europe, prompting the German industrial group to open talks while it evaluates the proposal, its green-transition plans and the impact on jobs at its steel sites, the company said on Tuesday.

The bidder, part of India’s Naveen Jindal Group, is pitching the deal as a way to keep steelmaking anchored in Germany while accelerating decarbonization.

In its statement, Jindal said it would support completion of Thyssenkrupp’s new green-steel facility in Duisburg and commit more than €2 billion to build additional electric-arc furnace capacity in the country.

“Our goal is to preserve and grow Thyssenkrupp’s 200-year industrial legacy and help transform it into Europe’s largest integrated low emission steelmaker,” said Narendra Misra, director of European operations at Jindal, in the company’s release.

Thyssenkrupp confirmed the bid without disclosing price or structure and said it would “closely examine the offer,” a process that will include weighing the bid against the group’s broader portfolio-slimming strategy.

Thyssenkrupp’s shares jumped as much as 7.9% to a four-and-a-half-year high and closed up 4.4% after the announcement. In India, shares of the listed Jindal Steel and Power Ltd, a separate listed firm in the broader Naveen Jindal Group, were little changed around ₹1,053 in late trading, reflecting that the offer was made by the privately held Jindal Steel International rather than the publicly traded entity.

A sale to Jindal would mark progress after previous efforts to offload all or part of the steel unit faltered.

Last year Thyssenkrupp sold a 20% stake in the division to Czech investor Daniel Křetínský and envisioned a 50-50 joint venture through an additional 30% sale, a plan that drew criticism from powerful labor union IG Metall over a lack of strategic clarity.

The steel unit at the center of the talks is a heavyweight in European industry. Thyssenkrupp Steel Europe generated €10.7 billion in sales last year and is Germany’s largest steelmaker, but any transaction is complicated by pension liabilities of about €2.7 billion.

The bidder would be prepared to assume those obligations, a step that would remove a major obstacle to a deal if borne out in binding terms, Reuters reported, citing people briefed on Jindal’s thinking.

Jindal is also leaning on its own decarbonization footprint to underscore how it would supply and modernize German operations.

The group pointed to a hydrogen-ready direct-reduced iron (DR) complex under development at Duqm in Oman and said the project will enhance security of supply for Thyssenkrupp’s German plants as they shift away from coal-based production.

Engineering group Danieli, which is supplying technology for the Duqm hub, said the first DRI plant is scheduled to start in 2026 and that Jindal has now ordered a second 2.5-million-tonne-per-year hydrogen-ready unit at the site.

Jindal’s statement frames the Oman complex as part of a broader supply chain that would backstop the Duisburg transition.

The Indian group said it also operates an “integrated mine-to-metal” model and intends to supply iron ore from its own sources to feed DRI operations in Oman and the facility Thyssenkrupp is building in Duisburg.

While those assertions come from Jindal’s own materials, they signal how the bidder is pitching reliability of raw-material supply and lower-carbon feedstock as central to its plan.

Organized labor’s early reaction suggests the proposal will at least get a hearing.

Jürgen Kerner, IG Metall’s second chairman and deputy chair of Thyssenkrupp’s supervisory board, told the local media that the offer “good news” and urged the company to start substantive talks quickly to clarify key questions.

Union opposition was a key headwind to the earlier tie-up plan with Křetínský’s EPCG. Any deal with Jindal will have to address job security, investment timelines and the path for climate targets to win workforce support.