Thyssenkrupp to Shed Administration Jobs in Cost-Cutting Measure

Germany's Thyssenkrupp AG (TKA.XE) said Tuesday it plans to cut 2,000 to 2,500 administrative jobs, or about 11% to 14% of its administrative headcount, as it sets out to lower administrative costs by 400 million euros ($456 million) over the next three years.

A months-long review of structures and processes found that the industrial conglomerate's administrative costs of EUR2.4 billion were "substantially too high," also compared with peers, a Thyssenkrupp spokeswoman said.

Thyssenkrupp currently employs 18,000 of its more than 154,000 workers in administrative roles.

About half the job cuts will happen in Germany, said the company, which plans to complete the moves by the end of fiscal year 2020.

Thyssenkrupp aims to shed the jobs in a "socially compatible" way and in agreement with labor representatives, by making use of natural attrition and measures such as part-time work and early retirement, as is customary in Germany to avoid outright redundancies.

Thyssenkrupp has had a cost-cutting program in place since fiscal year 2012 when annual costs were cut by between EUR800 million to EUR1 billion, predominantly in production.

Write to Ulrike Dauer at ulrike.dauer@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 11, 2017 05:05 ET (09:05 GMT)