By: Tom Kackenhoff
FRANKFURT: German industrial conglomerate Thyssenkrupp is planning to invest $150 to $250 million in a new U.S. headquarters for its elevators business, an executive told Reuters.
“We see no indication that the (elevators) boom is waning,” unit head Andreas Schierenbeck told Reuters.
Thyssenkrupp, which employs 20,000 staff in the Americas, is planning to build a new site including a test tower in Atlanta by 2022, he added.
While new installations of elevators remain a core business, a large part of earnings from the business are generated with maintenance services. The elevators unit is Thyssenkrupp’s most profitable, accounting for almost half of the company’s 2017 core earnings of 1.9 billion euros ($2.2 billion).
Trade tensions have so far not impacted the unit’s business, Schierenbeck said. “We procure locally, produce locally, install locally, and maintenance is done locally – it is a very stable business. The U.S. property market is in good shape, there’s construction going on everywhere.”
($1 = 0.8581 euros)
( Writing by Arno Schuetze; Editing by Maria Sheahan)
Source: Reuters