The departure of an important division head at Thyssenkrupp is causing further unrest.

The Group confirmed on Tuesday that the head of Materials Services, Martin Stillger, will be stepping down at the end of the month. The manager will leave thyssenkrupp at his own request. The Group regrets the decision.

IG Metall suspected a different background. "We are assuming a personnel change that was obviously forced by Group CEO Miguel Lopez," said Ingo Klötzer, company advisor to IG Metall and deputy chairman of the supervisory board at Materials Services.

Materials Services is successful, emphasized Klötzer. From an entrepreneurial point of view, there was no reason for a separation. It is possible that different ideas about the future of the company had led to the separation. "CEO Lopez obviously has expectations that cannot be fulfilled in the current market situation," said the trade unionist. Thyssenkrupp initially did not wish to comment on these statements and referred to its own press release.

Materials Services is one of the Ruhr Group's top-selling businesses. Among other things, the company supplies raw materials, steel and plastics to around 250,000 customers worldwide. In the 2022/23 financial year, the approximately 16,000 employees generated sales of 13.6 billion euros.

Thyssenkrupp announced that a decision on Stillger's successor would soon be made in the relevant committees. IG Metall warned the Group management not to push through the decision in the Supervisory Board again with the Chairman's double vote. Last week, the Group's supervisory body had used this method to push through the sale of 20 percent of the shares in steel subsidiary Thyssenkrupp Steel Europe to the energy holding company of Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky against the votes of the employee bank.

(Report by Tom Käckenhoff and Christoph Steitz, edited by Thomas Seythal. If you have any questions, please contact our editorial team at frankfurt.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com)