Steel inventories overall in Europe remain at low levels, according to Chief Financial Officer Alan Hippe, based on charts he presented at an investor conference in New York that were made available on the company's Internet site.
Hippe also said the blast furnace 'HKMA', owned by a ThyssenKrupp's 50-50 joint venture with Salzgitter, was restarted in January after it was shut down in December 2008 when steel prices slumped.
Steelmakers, such as ArcelorMittal have also restarted their blast furnaces in the second half of last year in anticipation of a global economic recovery.
ThyssenKrupp had re-activated its Number 9 blast furnace last November as demand among its end-customers in automotive, construction and machine engineering slowly picked up last year.
Demand for stainless steel had developed more slowly than for steel in general, and inventories were expected to remain at a moderate level, Hippe said.
'Imports from Asia have to be monitored,' he said without providing details.
South Korea's POSCO, the world's No. 4 steelmaker, said last month it would maintain prices of its stainless steel products for January at December levels.
POSCO said prices for hot-rolled stainless steel were at 3.05 million won ($2,610) per tonne and for cold-rolled stainless steel at 3.32 million won per tonne.
At 1510 GMT, ThyssenKrupp shares fell 2 percent at 26.84 euros, lagging a 1.3 percent drop in the DAX index of German blue chip shares
(Reporting by Marilyn Gerlach; Editing by Louise Heavens) Keywords: THYSSENKRUPP/STEEL (Reuters Messaging: marilyn.gerlach.reuters.com@reuters.net; 00 49 69 7565 1279) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2010. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.
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