Tuesday, June 2, 2009



Jun. 02, 2009

Mourning the loss of Erich W. Heine and Claus-Peter Hellhammer 
Erich Walter Heine, member of the Executive Board of ThyssenKrupp Steel AG and responsible for the major projects in Brazil and the USA, and Claus-Peter Hellhammer, an employee of ThyssenKrupp Steel in Duisburg, lost their lives on Monday when an Air France aircraft crashed over the Atlantic. We mourn the loss of our employees and extend our deepest sympathies to their families. 

Erich Heine, born in South Africa in 1967, studied engineering and business administration. He began his professional career in 1991 at the South African steel company Iscor Ltd. In 1999 he spent a year with BHP Billiton as marketing manager before being appointed General Manager of Iscor's Newcastle plant. After Iscor became Mittal Steel South Africa, he was appointed General Manager of the Vanderbijlpark plant. On February 1, 2006 Erich Heine joined the Executive Board of ThyssenKrupp Steel AG with responsibility for the Steelmaking business unit. From 2007 he was also responsible for the construction of the two steel plants in Rio de Janeiro and in Alabama, a task he handled with great success. "In Erich Heine we are losing an esteemed colleague who did outstanding work for the ThyssenKrupp Group. Our thoughts are with his family at this time of great sadness," said Dr. Ekkehard Schulz, Chairman of the Executive Board of ThyssenKrupp AG. Erich Heine leaves a wife and three small children.

Claus-Peter Hellhammer, 28, completed a technical trainee program with ThyssenKrupp Steel and worked at ThyssenKrupp CSA Siderúrgica do Atlântico from mid-2007 to early 2009. Most recently he had taken on special duties in the area of health and safety/fire protection in Duisburg. He was returning from a private trip to Brazil. 

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