OTHER NEWS - Feb. 22, 1993

German Steel Firm in Trouble: Europe’s worst postwar steel industry crisis may force Germany’s No. 2 steel firm to quit the industry, its chairman said in an interview. But Gerhard Cromme, management board chairman of Fried Krupp AG Hoesch-Krupp, told Der Spiegel magazine he hoped to avoid such a move. Krupp said his company, which is also involved in engineering, might have to stop steel production, but added, “I hope . . . we can avoid such a step through decisive measures.” German companies say their only hope of staying competitive is to cut production. Cromme said cooperation would give Germany’s Big Three steel makers--Thyssen, Krupp, and Preussag--the best hopes of surviving. The steel crisis, caused by overproduction and cheap Eastern European imports, is expected to slash 50,000 jobs in Western Europe in the next few years, about 40,000 of them in Germany.