Thyssenkrupp taps new board chair for embattled thyssenkrupp Steel

Thyssenkrupp board member Ilse Henne is to become the new head of the supervisory board at the company's steel subsidiary thyssenkrupp Steel Europe, the company told dpa on Tuesday.

Henne will replace Sigmar Gabriel, a prominent politician from the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) who resigned from the board last week along with three other board members at thyssenkrupp Steel, Germany's largest steelmaker.

Gabriel and other board members cited a loss of trust with thyssenkrupp chief executive Miguel López, amid an acrimonious dispute over the future of thyssenkrupp Steel and plans to spin the steelmaker off into a new joint partnership.

Labour leaders had sharply opposed Henne's appointment to the board of parent company thyssenkrupp last year, with the trade union IG Metall denouncing her appointment along with Volkmar Dinstuhl as a "cultural break in co-determination."

IG Metall called on the government to exert more influence over the struggling firm by claiming vacant seats on the supervisory board.