BERLIN: German industrial group Thyssenkrupp's business in China will not suffer even if growth in the world's second-biggest economy were to slow further this year, Sueddeutsche Zeitung reported, citing the firm's chief executive.
China's economy grew 6.9 percent in 2015, its weakest pace in a quarter of a century, after fourth quarter growth slowed to 6.8 percent, capping a year that witnessed a huge outflow of capital, a slide in the currency and a summer stocks crash.
"We can also live well with economic growth of 5 percent in China," Thyssenkrupp Chief Executive Heinrich Hiesinger said in an interview with Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper published on Wednesday.
"There is no cause for exaggerated agitation," the CEO said, noting that the high tech steelmaker was doing well in winning orders from local manufacturers. Demand for elevators in China is stable while car sales are growing, he said.
High tech steelmakers like Voestalpine and Thyssenkrupp cannot buy Chinese steel and process it into speciality products because of quality and specification issues.
Steelmakers are facing "a difficult year" in Europe, where prices are being squeezed by Chinese steel manufacturers using surplus output to boost exports, the newspaper cited Hiesinger as saying.
China makes half the world's 1.6 billion tonnes of steel and has an overcapacity of about 400 million tonnes - more than twice the EU's output. Its exports to the EU have doubled over the past 18 months.
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