Keynote address by Mr. Bob Soulliere, President & CEO of ThyssenKrupp Steel USA, LLC.

Balancing Global Trends with Regional Markets
ThyssenKrupp Steel's Strategy for Growth

I'm delighted to have the opportunity to give the keynote address for the President's Award Breakfast today in the great steel city of Pittsburgh, and to have the opportunity to share ThyssenKrupp Steel's strategy for growth with so many distinguished and talented representatives from our important industry.

This is actually the first time ThyssenKrupp Steel USA has attended this important exposition as a member of the North American steel industry. It is exciting to us, and we look forward to being a member of this community for many years to come.

While current global economic news may be mixed, I believe our industry has a bright and exciting future. For those with vision and passion for new and innovative technologies, the future offers historical prospects for growth in the world's changing and emerging economies.

Worldwide, consumer demand for steel is growing, new product markets are revealing themselves, and industry innovation is spreading along with the hunger for new technologies, and new applications for high-quality products.

With the increase in global demand, we are seeing an increase in global competition. Mergers and acquisitions and consolidation are changing the familiar faces of global steel through strategies built on sustained profitability and viability.

This morning, I want to share with you some of the global, regional and customer trends that are important to us at ThyssenKrupp Steel and how we are responding with a unique vision and strategy that we believe will ensure our success for many years to come.

Globally, there are many changes taking place in the industry. As I previously mentioned, companies are consolidating and competition is increasing.

In the 1990's, the venerable German steel legends Thyssen, Krupp and Hoesch merged to become pioneers in European consolidation. In 2006 Arcelor joined with Mittal and last year, the multinational Indian-based conglomerate Tata acquired Corus, which was itself born of a major international merger. But even as the number of major players is decreasing, the global demand for steel is increasing.

The economic outlook for different regions around the globe is mixed inconsistent and changing. As some companies search for ways to capture them all, the areas of greatest interest to ThyssenKrupp Steel and the focus of our global strategy is Europe, NAFTA and China.

In order to understand this strategy, you must first understand, as we do, the state of these markets and economies today.

GDP growth in the U.S. has fluctuated widely over the past two years, and the expectations for 2008 are modest to even the most hopeful economists with many predicting recession.

In Europe, though GDP growth rates remained low, they remained steady and only slightly less in 2008 than in 2007. China on the other hand, continues to report double-digit annual growth and no appreciable slowdown until 2009, and even then, the forecast rates are only slightly lower.

The prices for iron ore and scrap continue to increase at unprecedented rates and steel producers are focusing increasingly on the continuity and consistency of supply.

Here in the U.S., housing continues to slump affecting the durable goods and credit markets, while Europe and China have remained much less affected. It seems possible that an economic slump in the U.S. may not have as damaging an impact on other global economies as it may have had in the past.

Yet with all of the mixed global economic news, almost all of the steel markets in these regions are strong and the demand for high-value steel is modestly, but steadily, growing. In the U.S., with words of recession in the wind, the domestic production capacity is struggling to meet the current demand for flat steel as imports are now placing less pressure on the markets, requiring domestics to fill the gap.

In Europe and China, a similar situation exists, as prices continue to increase with demand and production costs. While some regions will of course experience greater demand than others, forecasts for global flat steel demand show it increasing an average of 3 to 4% a year in the next ten years. In the NAFTA region, demand is expected to increase during this period by 1.6% annually. By contrast Europe's demand is forecasted to increase 1.2% and China's nearly 6%, with both of these regions remaining exporters.

One trend of particular importance to our global strategy is that the demand for high-value carbon steel product is increasing in all these regions including China, the expanding EU economies of Eastern Europe such as Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic, as well as Western Europe and NAFTA.

In Europe and NAFTA, high-value products took a 44% share of the market in 1995. By 2015, this share is expected to increase to 50%.

While China continues to expand its steel making capacity, we believe it will continue to import high-grade steel to meet a market segment of 29% by 2015, a smaller share relative to Europe and the NAFTA region, but still quite substantial.

Our strategy also responds to predicted above-average growth in the premium flat carbon steel market during the next ten years, with a global market growth of over 6% per year compared to that of 3.7% for commodity steel products.

Within the next ten years, Europe and NAFTA will account for 45% of the share in global demand for premium products followed by a combined 41% share in Japan and South Korea. China is a growing premium steel consumer, but still has the smallest share among the developed markets.

In the important area of durable goods, the outlook on the U.S. automotive industry is very different today than it was ten years ago. Sales and production have been declining since 2005 and a return to real growth is not expected until 2010. In Europe, while sales have been flat since 2006, they are expected to grow again in 2009 and 2010. China's sales have been growing at double digit rates and have exceeded growth rates of 20% for the past three years. Their growth is expected to remain in double digit figures through at least the next five or six years.

Finally, our strategy responds to trends in the exchange rate for global currencies which are affecting regional markets. Since 2000, the dollar has weakened by more than 50% against the Euro. Exchange rate fluctuations in Korean, Russian, and more recently Chinese currencies, have also contributed to an impact on the global steel trade, as product that was once easily exported has now become too expensive to ship to the U.S.

So, how do these trends translate into the demand for various steel products in these regions?

China's demand for high-tech, high-quality products is low, but is slowly rising. Their market demand is driven by low value-added products such as hot-rolled and heavy plate. Nevertheless, their demand for consumer durables such as automobiles and appliances continues to grow at a rapid pace.

Europe has traditionally been ThyssenKrupp's core market for flat steel, with roughly half of this in high-value product. While the growth rates may be small, they are higher than the rates expected in lower quality flat steel demand, and we expect this demand will be supplemented by the expanding new EU markets I have previously mentioned.

In NAFTA, while the growth may be low overall, we expect above-average demand for high-value and high-quality products, accounting for nearly 50% of the market. Customer trends in this region are reflecting southern shifts, consolidation and this growing demand.

While the automotive industry will continue to be led by the Big 3 American auto makers, there is a growing and impressive presence of Asian and European automotive and manufacturing companies in the southern U.S. and Mexico which will increase the future demand for high-value steel products and technological capability in these regions.

Pipe and tube, another ThyssenKrupp Steel target industry, is also demanding high-value grades along with higher-yield strengths and there is increased demand for spiral welded tubes and large diameter pipe of 20 inches or greater.

While there is an abundance of service centers in North America, this segment is shifting toward consolidation. However, even with consolidation, their share of the market will remain high. The appliance industry is growing globally as well, and as in the North American automotive industry, it is also shifting south.

Our strategy for growth takes advantage of all these trends by leveraging our historical strength in the high-quality flat carbon steel market with a plan for expanded capacity to do what we do best in these growing global regions that will need and value it most.

ThyssenKrupp is one of the world's largest technology groups and an acknowledged leader in European steelmaking for over a century. More than 190,000 employees worldwide work in the Group's main areas of steel and capital goods and services, realizing sales of over $80 billion in fiscal year 2006/2007.

We are currently the second largest producer of flat-rolled carbon steel on the European continent, and are a world leader in electrical steel and tailored welded blanks with a heavy concentration on high-value added products. Our facilities in the Ruhr area of Germany have a capacity of 17.3 million metric tons of crude steel a year, and from this legendary location we have fed European industrial growth for well over a century.

Our presence in China is meeting a relatively small but growing high-value market in the automotive and appliance industries, with a 450,000 ton capacity hot-dip coating line in Dalian and tailored welded blank factories in Wuhan and Changchun.

We have begun to strengthen our international presence in the global premium steel market through a full and notably diverse range of high quality products such as tailored welded blanks, tinplate, electrical steel, coated products, cold strip, heavy plate and hot strip to name a few. With these quality products, we bring an expertise in innovative technologies and a willingness to partner with our customers on research and development projects aimed at making their products even better.

In the face of all these new global and regional dynamics, ThyssenKrupp Steel has a unique strategy that is clearly and confidently addressing the challenges of increased globalization and consolidation, changes in the raw materials markets, and the current growth trends in the industry of flat carbon steel.

ThyssenKrupp Steel has a successful business model which differentiates our company from our competitors. It also forms the basis for the medium and long-term steps of our global strategy. The areas of greatest interest to ThyssenKrupp Steel and the focus of this strategy are Europe and NAFTA. In order to understand it, you must first see as we do the state of these markets and economies today.

We will not be losing sight of the growth market of China. We are investing in small steps in this high-value segment. In 2003, together with our partner Angang New Steel Co., our TAGAL hot-dip coating line in Dalian in northern China was opened. To meet the expected growing demand in these areas, the joint venture will open a second hot-dip coating line with roughly the same capacity this year and even greater investment is being considered.

In Europe, we are investing over $600 million to expand our capacity for value-added processing by expanding our hot strip, cold rolling and coating lines. In addition, the company is investing another $530 million to strengthen our metallurgical operations which includes a new blast furnace that began operation in December of 2007. These combined European investments of over $1 billion are aimed at utilizing growth opportunities in our expanding core market, and they are integrated with another large investment in South America that will optimize supply with expanding European demand.

In South America, specifically Brazil, we are investing over $4 billion in an integrated steel making facility which includes two blast furnaces, a BOF steelmaking shop, two continuous casters, a coke plant, power plant, sinter plant, and a captive port with rail connections to a secure high-quality ore supply. With an annual capacity of 5 million metric tons of high-quality slabs, this new facility will support our marketing strategies in the European and NAFTA regions.

With this additional capacity, we will ship 2 million tons of slabs to feed our expansion in Germany. The remaining 3 million tons will be shipped to the U.S. to our new $3.7 billion greenfield, state-of-the-art steel and stainless processing facility in north Mobile County Alabama. This facility is now under construction and is expected to begin operation in the second quarter of 2010.

Shiploads of carbon steel slabs will leave our new integrated facility in Brazil on Panamax ships bound for Mobile Alabama. There, they will be transferred to barges that will carry the slabs up the Tombigbee River to our terminal for our hot strip mill, which is colored in red in the rendering.

This mill is designed to roll in excess of 5 million tons per year, 4 million of which will be used for carbon steel products. The hot strip mill will be fully equipped to produce the highest quality bands for sale as hot rolled and substrate for cold rolled and coated products. It will be capable of rolling from 1.5 mm up through 25.4 mm in thickness.

The continuous pickle tandem mill, shown in orange, will be state of the art with the ability to roll from .3 mm up through 3 mm and make the highest quality product for both exposed and unexposed applications.

Adjacent to the pickle tandem mill will be an independent pickle line designed to serve those markets that only seek pickled coils.

Finally, we will have four continuous galvanizing lines, shown in green, capable of producing 1.8 million tons of coated products for exposed and unexposed applications including construction. Two of these lines will produce product up to 1870 mm wide and the other two up to 1670 mm wide. One of the lines will be capable of producing both cold rolled and coated products depending upon the demand of our customers.

Our product mix will be comprehensive. We will be making 2.1 million tons of hot rolled bands and pickled coils. It will also include full finished cold rolled as well as galvanized, galvannealed, aluminized and galvalume products. Our intent is to produce a full range of steel grades to include mild steels, high strength and advanced high strength steels, as well as high carbon and structural steels.

ThyssenKrupp Stainless USA, who will be co-locating on a part of the site, will build its own meltshop, colored in yellow. This will produce 1 million tons of slabs which will be processed through our carbon hot strip mill, then through to the stainless cold rolling mill, colored in dark blue. The two facilities will share the optimized logistics of river, rail and road to deliver our products on-time to demanding customers throughout the NAFTA region.

Our products will support high-value applications by manufacturers in Mexico, and throughout North America, taking special advantage of the region's north to south migration of modern industrial centers. The carbon steel facility will serve the automotive, construction and pipe and tube industries as well as service centers and the manufacturers of appliances, precision machinery and engineered products.

With the slabs we'll be producing in Brazil, we will meet the growing need in North America, and especially the expanding manufacturing base in the southern U.S. and Mexico, for the high quality products, advanced technical support, and long-term customer relationships that ThyssenKrupp Steel is known for.

Since our groundbreaking in November of last year, the 3,500 acre site has been cleared, and we have recently completed the preparation and grading activities. We have begun piling for the substructures and soon will begin pouring the foundations that the new ThyssenKrupp Steel USA will stand upon for many years to come.

The Alabama State Port Authority has begun work on a new $100 million dollar port facility dedicated to transferring each month an average of 300,000 tons of incoming slabs onto barges bound for our river terminal.

In another close partnership, the State is also aiding us in recruiting and screening production applicants through a local training center. We have begun the process of welcoming the first of our estimated 2,700 employees into the growing family of ThyssenKrupp and introducing them to our philosophy of teamwork and excellence in product quality, customer service, and innovation. Since our site selection announcement we have received over 20,000 resumes and applications for both professional and production related positions. Already 1,000 of these have been processed through pre-training classes or interviews.

With the additional crude steel capacity in Brazil, we will improve our competitive position. By focusing on the high-value segments in Europe and strengthening the heart of our company in Germany with expanded production capacity and a steady flow of slabs from Brazil we will sustain our dominating European presence.

With this foothold in North America, we will bring the proven and valued traditions of ThyssenKrupp quality, superior service, technical innovation and long-term relationships to our customers in the NAFTA region.

ThyssenKrupp Steel will go its own way, choosing a unique path we believe will ensure us profitable growth for many years. We are thinking globally, but we are acting regionally by responding to what we see as trends affecting regional markets.

This path will lead us to the cooperative partnerships that have built our reputation in Europe and are now in growing demand in NAFTA. This path will enable us to capture those markets where we see long-term, stable growth in the demand for premium products.

Amidst the constant change in global and regional markets, and despite the ebb and flow of economies, exchange rates and booms and busts, the growing industrialized world is as dependent as ever on this amazing product that has brought us here today.

For the first time, ThyssenKrupp is reaching globally for new customers, partners, and markets, going its own unique way with a strategy we believe will ensure our continued success for generations to come.

Like proud parents who can't stop talking about their children, we at ThyssenKrupp Steel USA relish every opportunity to tell others about these newest additions to the distinguished ThyssenKrupp family.

I would like to again thank the AIST for this opportunity today. We look forward to working with customers, colleagues and competitors alike to keep the North American and European steel industries among the strongest and most respected in the world.

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Remarks by Dr. Ekkehard D. Schulz, Chairman of the Executive Board of ThyssenKrupp AG

Governor Riley,
Members of Congress,
Commissioners,
Mayor Jones,
Mayor Bolden,
Distinguished Guests:

Welcome or "Herzlich Willkommen", as we say in German. Karl Koehler, Juergen Fechter and I thank you for joining us today at the home of our carbon and stainless steel facility in Calvert/Alabama.

We have come a long way from modest beginnings.

In 1837, Alfred Krupp, the founder of our predecessor company Krupp, based in Essen, Germany, sent his company's prototypes for coin minting machines to America. A few years later, he delivered the ‘National Coin" to the Philadelphia Mint at a price of $1,011.06.

In 1893 Henschel & Sohn, an eventual Thyssen company, set foot on the American market and won the first prize for locomotive design at the Chicago World Fair.

Today, 170 years after our products were first sent to this country, we break ground on the site of our $3.7 billion world-class facility, our biggest investment in the United States to date. Our new plant will join existing ThyssenKrupp facilities in America which employ more than 25,000 people and generate $9.7 billion in annual revenues.

This is an exciting moment for our company. This groundbreaking represents the culmination of a complicated two-year process in which we analyzed 67 sites in 20 states for our facility. As we look out at the friends we have made in Alabama, the team and I are certain that we made the right choice.

This facility is a key element of our company's growth strategy; once we are up-and-running on this site in 2010, we will be positioned to significantly increase our carbon and stainless steel market share throughout North America. Our strategy for both the Steel and Stainless steel segments is based on 3 pillars: efficiency, technology and profitable international growth. The global steel industry is undergoing a dynamic consolidation process. We are taking our own individual approach, with a clear forward strategy to position ourselves as a global player in the attractive steel markets, focusing on Europe, where we are number two in the market, and North America.

The key elements of our growth strategy in North America are:

• First, setting up additional crude steel capacities in Brazil to produce low-cost, high-quality slabs which will significantly improve our competitive position. Our facility being built near Rio de Janeiro is scheduled to start production in 2009 with a capacity of 5 million tons of slabs per year, much of which will be transported here.
• Second, strengthening our position in North America by establishing our own processing capacities on this site. This will create major advantages in terms of quality, costs, and access to a customer base with a demand greater than current supply.

Today, we are digging on a small plot of land. Eventually, our new facility will sit on more than 3,500 acres. This is the type of project that represents a very long-term commitment. We will be here in Alabama for decades to come, providing good jobs for many generations.

Along with construction, our next focus will be on developing a first-rate workforce to help us operate the facility – producing 5.1 million metric tons of high-quality end products each year.

We will be working with AIDT, Alabama's workforce training department, to recruit and train workers. When fully operational, 2,700 permanent jobs will be created, including opportunities in management, engineering, equipment operations, logistics, production, maintenance and administration.

Our commitment to you extends beyond employment opportunities. We will demonstrate through our actions that we will be a good neighbor and a responsible corporate citizen. Throughout the construction and operation of our new facility, we are committed to meet the most stringent environmental protection standards. In Alabama, this means we will be using the most technologically advanced protection measures available. The new plant will use clean-burning natural gas and electricity to fire its process heaters and furnaces. The process equipment will also be designed with extensive energy recovery and re-use technologies.

In many cases, ThyssenKrupp's own high standards for environmental protection exceed what is required. As an example of this commitment, during recent tree harvesting activities on this site, we voluntarily chipped wood stumps for use for example as bio fuel versus burning them as regulations would allow. We did so in the best interests of the environment and our neighbors.

I hope you agree that this is also a great day for the Mobile area and Alabama as a whole. Alabama is on a roll… it has been successful in recruiting not only ThyssenKrupp, but also many other impressive companies.

The economy is booming; the unemployment rate is at an historic low, the housing market is at a high and the tax base is growing. To us, Alabama is the jewel of the South. This is a testament to Governor Riley, Neil Wade and his team at the Alabama Development Office, and many other public- and private-sector leaders.

We announced in May that Alabama would be our home. Our next goal was to break ground in this calendar year. We do so now, which means that we are on track to start production in March 2010.

Between our initial announcement and today's groundbreaking, we have been busy. I am proud to say that we have hired several well-known companies from Alabama to assist in grading, geotechnical surveys and other site preparation activities. In July and August, we held four open house community meetings throughout the Mobile area to inform approximately 2,000 residents about the new plant. We welcome this dialogue and hope that it will continue well into the future. We opened a project office in Mobile. Two weeks ago we placed a big order for the plant's hot strip mill and cold rolling complex. We are right on schedule and ready to begin construction.

There are so many people to thank for helping us reach this groundbreaking today. Prior to our selection of Alabama, we had a tremendous amount of support from state leaders, private interests and the community as a whole. We are grateful that this support has continued since that time.

I would like to share a quick anecdote. Last year in Germany, ThyssenKrupp played host to Neil Armstrong, the first man to set foot on the Moon. He told us: "Great ideas need landing gear as well as wings." We have developed an idea and today we have landed here in Calvert, Alabama.

Governor Riley, distinguished guests: Karl Koehler, Juergen Fechter and I would like to say: "Herzlichen Dank". Thank you once again for your leadership and support.

We would also like to thank our teams at ThyssenKrupp Steel USA and ThyssenKrupp Stainless USA. Your dedication, hard work and team spirit is exemplary and has impressed us time and again. We know how demanding this project has been on you and your families. You have moved to this great state, found housing and schools for your children and made new friends. We are proud of you and wish all of you the very best for the future here in Alabama.

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Remarks by Mr. Bob Soulliere President and CEO of ThyssenKrupp Steel and Stainless USA

Good morning.

I'm Bob Soulliere, the President and CEO of ThyssenKrupp Steel and Stainless USA, the company that will oversee the development of the new facility. When we are operational, I will be the President and CEO of the carbon steel operations.

Let me first echo the comments of my colleagues by saying thank you, Governor Riley, thank you to everyone who worked so hard with us during the selection process, and thank you Alabama!

Additionally, I would like to recognize Neil Wade and his team at the Alabama Development Office. Last week, they were honored as the top state development office in the nation by Site Selection magazine. I can tell you from first-hand experience that this prestigious award is well-deserved.

From the ThyssenKrupp side, I'd like to thank Bob Hess and the team at Cushman & Wakefield Business Consulting for their tireless efforts and support along the way.

This is a great day.

This is a great day for ThyssenKrupp:

We initially estimated that this would be a 2.9-billion-dollar investment made by our company – a significant number. This will now be a 3.7-billion-dollar investment. The larger investment primarily results from an expected increase in capacity and the installation of additional equipment to allow further diversification of our product portfolio.

3.7-billion is, frankly, a lot. Given the scope of this project, it is an integral part of ThyssenKrupp's strategy for years to come. We anticipate that this new facility will allow us to significantly broaden our reach throughout the entire NAFTA region; the products produced in Alabama will be destined for Mexico, Canada, and throughout the U.S.

This is also a great day for Alabama.

We come with the promise of good jobs for generations to come. We come with the promise to be a good corporate citizen. And, we will demonstrate that it is possible to be economically viable while also being environmentally conscious.

Let's start with jobs… first, an independent study found that approximately 29,000 construction jobs will be created. That includes building the facility and improvements in the surrounding area, such as roads.

In 2010, we'll begin operations, and when fully operational, 2,700 permanent jobs will be created, including opportunities in management, engineering, administration, equipment operations, logistics and production. These jobs will support families in Alabama for a long, long time. A steel plant of this size will operate for decades. We are here to stay.

The independent study I just mentioned also found that tens of thousands indirect jobs will be created. We expect that this will include new suppliers for our facility, retailers that will serve our workforce and the community, food and hospitality workers, housing construction, and school construction.

The word "globalization" often has a negative connotation. There is a lot of talk these days about globalization and its effects on people. This project demonstrates how globalization can be positive. I am a Canadian, working for a German company in a plant whose workers will be mostly American.

So, in this instance, we can certainly celebrate the fact that globalization will bring thousands of jobs to the communities of Southern Alabama.

Now, I'd like to turn to ThyssenKrupp as a good corporate citizen. Everywhere we operate, we see ourselves as part of the fabric of the community. It will be no different in Alabama and, in particular, Mobile and Washington Counties. We intend to give back to the community; we will invest strongly in training. We also will support education, athletics and social projects. And we will be certain to save energy and conserve resources.

This leads me to our environmental commitment. This will not be a steel mill of past generations. ThyssenKrupp's new facility should not be confused with that of an iron and steel mill with blast furnaces and coke oven plants that uses dust-emitting raw materials like iron ore.

Our facility will be a model for 21st century industry. We will use state-of-the-art processes and equipment to make steel and stainless steel products that use fewer natural resources. Because we will use clean-burning natural gas – not coal – our emissions will be very low. And our equipment has been designed with extensive energy recovery and reuse technologies.

We are also committed to water conservation. The water that we use within the facility will be recycled several times, enabling us to withdraw far less source water than would otherwise be necessary.

Of course, we will comply with and generally exceed all federal and state environmental regulations. We apply the high European standards of environmental protection everywhere. These standards often exceed U.S. standards.

You are likely wondering how we selected Alabama. I assure you that it was not an easy decision. Our process began in February 2006 with 67 potential sites in 20 states. By February of this year, we narrowed our search to two states, Alabama and Louisiana. Both states presented ThyssenKrupp with strong proposals – one of several factors that guided our selection of the ultimate site.

It was extremely difficult to select between Alabama and Louisiana. Ultimately, the decision was based on the factors mentioned by Peter Urban earlier and, everything considered, Alabama was the right place to be.

I know this announcement comes as a disappointment in Louisiana. But we believe the economic ripple effects of the new plant will benefit the wider regional economy as well.

One final note – a personal one. My role in the company will necessitate that my family and I move to Alabama.

We are excited to call Alabama our home and, being avid football fans, we are anxious to experience football in the state of Alabama. But we do have a problem which we need help to resolve. We cannot figure out of it should be Roll Tide or War Eagle. I asked the Governor and he said both are fine institutions and both have fine football teams. Should I have expected any other answer? Maybe throughout the day, some of you could help me out with this dilemma.

Thank you again, everyone. We at ThyssenKrupp are anxious to further develop our partnership with the state of Alabama.

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Remarks by Dr. Michael Rademacher, Vice Chairman of the Executive Board of ThyssenKrupp Stainless

Governor Riley, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,

It's great to be in Alabama; we're excited to be here. Or to put it another way: after months spent searching for our site, and after many, many meetings and discussions, we've finally arrived – here with you.

For ThyssenKrupp Stainless, this new facility in Alabama is a project of immense importance for the future. Let me briefly explain why.

ThyssenKrupp Stainless is the world's leading supplier of stainless steel flat products. We are already well established in the US, where the Stainless group holds already today roughly a 12 percent market share. Currently, most of our products for the US market are made by our Mexican subsidiary, ThyssenKrupp Mexinox in San Luis Potosí, supplemented by imports from our sites in Germany, Italy and China. Distribution is taken care of by a highly-efficient Chicago-based operation. We should also point out that our subsidiary ThyssenKrupp VDM employs 200 people in Nevada and New Jersey to manufacture nickel-alloy products.

Outside the US, ThyssenKrupp Stainless is well positioned in other NAFTA countries: we have a market share of over 15 percent in Canada, and in Mexico we are market leader with a share of over 70 percent. The NAFTA market for stainless steel products is expanding; experts forecast annual growth of more than 3 percent to 2012. ThyssenKrupp Stainless aims to participate in this growth, and as we see it, establishing our own site in the US will help us achieve this. Our existing and potential US customers don't prefer imports; they want stainless steel products made in the U.S.

This facility will be a joint venture between ThyssenKrupp Steel and ThyssenKrupp Stainless. ThyssenKrupp Stainless' share of this overall project will be worth about one billion dollars.

For the Stainless group, this project represents a significant investment for the company. An entire area on the facility will be dedicated to stainless steel flat products. Our products will be used by several industries – automotive, white goods, construction and appliance to name a few. Specific uses include stainless steel washing machines, stainless steel building facades, and automotive chassis – again, just to name a few.

A little bit of the specifics: the stainless facility will include a complete melt shop with electric arc furnace, Argon Oxygen Decarbonation converter and continuous casting line. The slabs produced on the caster will be rolled into hot-rolled coil on the hot strip line operated jointly with our sister ThyssenKrupp Steel. Of this hot-rolled material, some 340,000 metric tons per year will be supplied to ThyssenKrupp Mexinox. A further 550,000 tons per year will be processed in the cold rolling mill into 125,000 tons of pickled hot-rolled and 350,000 tons of cold-rolled. The key units of the cold rolling mill will be a high-performance hot-rolled annealing/pickling line with in-line cold rolling stand, separate cold rolling stands for maximum widths of 54, 62 and 72 inches, a cold-rolled annealing/pickling line with in-line skin pass stand, a second stand-alone skin pass stand and several finishing lines.

We believe this configuration will put us in an excellent position to meet market requirements. Our product mix will be firmly focused on the needs of our customers, as demonstrated by one particular feature of our portfolio: there is strong demand from US customers for the aforementioned coil width of 72 inches, but at present these requirements are met exclusively by imports. Our entry to the market will change this and improve the supply situation for our customers.

Ladies and Gentlemen, we know the stainless steel market here and have shown in the past that we can operate successfully in it. In the coming years, North America will offer the potential for additional volumes. Against this background, our direct entry to the US market is perhaps a bold step, but also a logical and forward-looking one for ThyssenKrupp Stainless. We are confident that the expectations we place in the construction and operation of our new plant will be fulfilled. To meet these objectives, we need the continued support and approval of the state and of the local community.

At this point I'd like to say a word about our choice of site: we owe a big debt of gratitude to Alabama – the governor, the legislature, the Congressional delegation, local elected leaders, private-sector stakeholders, and the public. Both states would have been capable of realizing such a major project. But in the end, we had to make a decision, and we're convinced that Alabama was the right choice. Our numerous talks in recent months showed just how important this plant is not only to ThyssenKrupp, but also to Alabama. We got a clear signal that ThyssenKrupp is really welcome here. We want to do everything we can to make sure it stays that way, and to maintain and intensify our links with the people in this region.

The name Alabama is thought to mean "Here We Rest." We are excited to call Alabama home today. This is where we will work and where we will rest for generations to come.

Thank you, Governor and thank you, Alabama.

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Remarks by Mr. Peter Urban, Vice Chairman of the Executive Board of ThyssenKrupp Steel

Good morning Montgomery,

Good morning Alabama,

Today is a historic day, indeed. This morning the supervisory board of ThyssenKrupp approved the Steel and Stainless - Greenfield - investment of 3.7 billion dollars in Alabama.

According to an old saying, "the value of a good agreement lies in its longevity". That's why I am delighted to join you here in Alabama, where we have found the site for our new plant, scheduled to start production in 2010. Together with the representatives and the people of this state, we at ThyssenKrupp are about to embark on a project for the long term.

The value we will create with our 3.7 billion dollar investment will be guaranteed for all stakeholders, that is our customers, our employees, our shareholders and not least the community of the city of Mobile, the state of Alabama and the United States. All will feel the benefit for many years to come. ThyssenKrupp can look back on a successful tradition spanning almost 200 years.

ThyssenKrupp is a listed, German based company with a market capitalization of some $ 29 billion. Our Group is a conglomerate of five Segments - Steel, Stainless, Technologies, Elevators and Services. In fiscal year ending September 2006 we generated sales of $ 61 billion and earnings before taxes of $ 3.2 billion. In 2006 ThyssenKrupp had a workforce of 188,000 employees, thereof 24,000 in the U.S. This year we expect a further increase in sales and earnings. Today saw the publication of our first-half figures, which show you an increase in sales of $ 33 billion and a rise in earnings of $ 2.1 billion. Fore more details please refer to our website at www.thyssenkrupp.com.

Now I would like to give you some information about the Steel Segment of ThyssenKrupp. Mr. Rademacher will be presenting our sister segment Stainless shortly. ThyssenKrupp Steel is engaged only in the flat carbon steel business. In 2006 we posted sales of around $14 billion achieved by some 31,000 employees, and a crude steel output of 13.8 million metric tons. We are particularly proud of our earnings amounting to $ 1.7 billion.

Our strategy is based on 3 pillars: efficiency, technology and profitable international growth. And that's why we are here.

Governor Riley, you just told us how happy you are about our investment. It was a difficult decision to make, as we had two offers which were almost equal in merit. There were just a few assets that tipped the balance in favor of your state:

• Logistical considerations of our supply chain from Brazil to our projected customers;
• Operating costs such as labor and electricity;
• And, site specific capital expenditures.

A great deal of hard work went into this. Our teams and the experts from your state frequently worked overtime to find the right solution for both partners. I would like to thank you and everyone involved in this process for the friendly reception you gave us, for the extremely fair way you conducted the negotiations and for the high level of professionalism you demonstrated. I would be grateful if you would pass on our thanks to all those involved.

The global steel industry is undergoing a dynamic consolidation process. ThyssenKrupp Steel is taking its own individual approach.

ThyssenKrupp Steel is going for growth with high-end steel. We have a clear forward strategy to position ourselves as a global player in the attractive markets for high-grade flat carbon steel focusing on Europe, where we are Number 2 on the market, and North America, where – I must admit - we have some catching up to do.

The key elements of our growth strategy are:

• First, setting up additional crude steel capacities in Brazil to produce low-cost, high-quality slabs which will significantly improve our competitive position. The steel mill being built near Rio de Janeiro is scheduled to start production in 2009 with a capacity of 5 million tons of slabs per year, 2 million tons thereof to be supplied to Europe.
• Second, strengthening our position in North America by establishing our own processing capacities. This will create major advantages in terms of both quality and costs. The plant will be the most advanced of its kind and meet exacting environmental standards. 3 million metric tons of slabs from Brazil will be processed and coated here in Alabama.
• Third, focusing on high-end segments in Europe and strengthening our German sites through growth capital expenditure in order to expand our processing capacity by 2 million metric tons.

Our business success in recent years and the technological expertise ThyssenKrupp Steel has acquired over the decades form the platform from which we will successfully and sustainably pursue our individual strategy within the steel sector.

We will be concentrating on the relevant markets with a strong demand for high-grade flat carbon steel; almost 70% of this demand is concentrated in the industrial regions on both sides of the Atlantic. One particular competitive advantage we hold is our long-standing customer relations – including those in the U.S. Thanks to the high quality of our products and extensive support of our R&D operations, these relations have become very strong and stable. To date, however, exports to the U.S. from our European production operations have been well below the 1 million ton per year mark. Capacity bottlenecks have prevented us from meeting customer requirements beyond this level.

We will now be offering a wide range of our high-end steels on this market. 40 percent of our products will be supplied to the automotive industry, the remainder to customers in the household appliances, construction and mechanical engineering sectors. So we will be serving the most demanding customers in North America from this site in Alabama. Our aim is to maximize our competitiveness through a combination of cost and technology leadership.

As I said, our plant in Mobile will be a key component of our forward strategy for profitable growth. Our aim is to gain a share of some 5 percent of the 100 million ton per year North American market. With a large, fast-growing high-end segment, this market is structured in a similar way to our core European market.

At almost 22%, the automotive industry's share of the US market is very large, but it is likely to fall due to the trend toward lightweighting. This is an opportunity for ThyssenKrupp Steel to leverage its leading capabilities in this area. Local steel capacities are not sufficient to meet the demand for high-grade flat carbon steel. That's why the region is currently the world's biggest importer of flat steel and will continue to rely heavily on imports in the future. This is another reason for our strong commitment to the U.S.

We do have an enormous task ahead of us in the next three years here in Alabama. There are bound to be good and bad days ahead.

In this project, as with our other major investment in Brazil, we will be guided by the words of the 19th century Scottish author and philosopher Thomas Carlyle, who said: "Work and despair not. Let us roll up our sleeves. Let us show the world what we can do. Let us show everyone: there is no reason to doubt our resolve." Or in a more fashionable way: Let's get on with it! We shall follow this imperative.

Thank you for your attention.

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