FRANKFURT, May 15 (Reuters) – German steelmaker ThyssenKrupp
took another writedown on the value its Steel Americas
business, driving it to an unexpected quarterly loss but raising
hopes it is closer to selling the troubled asset.

The firm said on Wednesday it was cutting the book value of
Steel Americas, which comprises a mill in Brazil and another in
the United States, to 3.4 billion euros ($4.4 billion) from 3.9
billion, which analysts said showed it was ready to accept a
lower price and could be nearing a long-anticipated deal.

FRANKFURT, May 2 (Reuters) – German industrial bellwether
Siemens AG took a more pessimistic stance on the rest
of the year as industry demand remained weak and project charges
weighed on quarterly earnings.

Siemens, which makes products ranging from fast trains and
gas turbines to hearing aids, is heavily exposed to world
industrial demand and has been hit by a downturn in investment
due to the global economic slowdown.

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Space junk such as debris from rockets must be removed from the Earth’s orbit to avoid crashes that could cost satellite operators millions of euros and knock out mobile and GPS networks, the European Space Agency said.

At the current density of debris, there will be an in-orbit collision about every five years, however research presented at a conference hosted by ESA in Germany showed that an increase in such junk made more collisions likely in the future.

FRANKFURT, April 17 (Reuters) – Deutsche Lufthansa
was threatened with a second round of strikes as labour union
Verdi, representing thousands of staff at the airline, rejected
as “unacceptable” an offer for wage increases from the company.

Lufthansa offered to raise salaries by 1.2 percent from
October this year and a further 0.5 percent a year later, in a
deal that would run for 29 months and would not contain job
guarantees, a spokeswoman for Verdi said on Wednesday.

BERLIN/HANOVER, April 8 (Reuters) – German industrial output
rose in February and industry leaders were cautiously optimistic
about growth and investment in Europe’s largest economy this
year as long as there is no flare-up in the euro zone crisis.

Coming on the heels of figures showing a
stronger-than-expected rise in industrial orders in February,
Economy Ministry data on Monday showed output edging up 0.5
percent on the month. This was above the mid-range forecast in a
Reuters poll of economists for a 0.3 percent rise.

HANOVER, Germany, April 7 (Reuters) – Russian President
Vladimir Putin arrived in Germany on Sunday to protests over his
human rights and democracy record and a warning from German
Chancellor Angela Merkel that Russia needed an active civil
society to flourish.

Putin’s visit to Germany and the Netherlands, Moscow’s
biggest trade partners in Europe, was supposed to focus on trade
but comes at awkward time just weeks after a wave of state
inspections of foreign-funded non-governmental organisations
(NGOs) in Russia, much criticised abroad.

FRANKFURT/VIENNA, March 26 (Reuters) – When Wolfgang Eder
and his team started looking around for a site for a new plant
for Voestalpine, the Austrian steelmaker he heads,
they had 17 sites in eight countries on their list.

This month, after more than a year of looking, they settled
on the U.S. state of Texas, after a boom in the production of
natural gas from shale extraction brought gas prices down to
just a quarter of what companies paid in Europe.

FRANKFURT, March 20 (Reuters) – Deutsche Lufthansa
has cancelled more than 500 flights after German union Verdi
called on 33,000 workers at the company to go on strike on
Thursday over a wage dispute.

The strike is expected to last for about five hours from 5am
(0400 GMT), the union said on Wednesday, setting the stage for
the next round of wage talks on Friday.

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Germany’s ThyssenKrupp (TKAG.DE: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) plans to raise over 1 billion euros ($1.3 billion) in a share sale to bolster its finances after winning over its biggest investor to the plan, a newspaper reported, sending the steelmaker’s stock sliding.

ThyssenKrupp has struggled to reduce its debts with a flagging European economy hitting demand for steel, and has suffered massive losses from a project in the Americas.

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Deutsche Lufthansa (LHAG.DE: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), Europe’s biggest airline by revenue, said a tough economic outlook and restructuring costs would limit operating profit growth this year and next.

European carriers including Lufthansa, Air France-KLM (AIRF.PA: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and British Airways (ICAG.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) are slashing jobs and shelving growth plans as they grapple with soaring jet fuel prices, a weak economy and fierce competition from low-cost carriers and Middle East airlines.