The press on protests against ThyssenKrupp

Handelsblatt - Trade relations: German companies fight for their business in Iran (January 22, 2010, German)

Jerusalem Post - 'Nazi-era corporate behavior repeated' (January 21, 2010)

German business with Iran: The example ThyssenKrupp

The ThyssenKrupp Group has had a particularly close relationship with Iran in the past.  The Iranian state became an investor in ThyssenKrupp in 1974.  The Iranian Vice Minister for Economics and International Affairs, Dr. Navab-Motlagh, was a member of the Supervisory Board until 2005.[1]  He was not nominated for re-election at the end of 2004 due to fears that business with the United States would be lost.[2]  The Iranian state was also the third largest shareholder in ThyssenKrupp through the state-owned Iran Foreign Investment Company (IFIC) with a packet of shares of 7.8%.  In this case again, pressure from the American government led the company to reduce its holdings to a 4.5% share in the company in 2003.[3]  However, IFIC still holds these shares, and in 2007 alone the Iranian state collected €18.5 million in dividends through IFIC.[4]  ThyssenKrupp has a subsidiary in Iran – ThyssenKrupp Assanbar.[5] (Capital stock: 51%)

ThyssenKrupp’s subsidiary, Uhde, is particularly active in Iran's energy sector.  Its main activities are in the planning and construction of chemical and industrial plants as well as in the oil sector.  According to Iranian sources, in 2008 Uhde was one of the main companies involved in the Jam Petrochemical Assaluyeh Olefin Project.  The project plans to build one of Iran’s largest olefin plants with planned final production capacity of 1,320,000 tons per year.[6]  Uhde is also currently the licensor for the construction of another petrochemical plant in Assaluyeh.[7]  Uhde also reports on its own website that it is currently involved in the construction of a PVC plant in Bandar Imam (Uhde once again holds the license).[8]  In March 2007, the Dow Jones News and the Iranian news network Press TV reported that several companies had signed a contract to build a €1.3 billion refinery in the Isfahan region, and Uhde and the German company Lurgi are involved in the project.  The Iranian client is the National Iranian Oil Engineering and Construction Co., a subsidiary of the Iranian Ministry of Oil.[9]  Uhde was also frequently involved in building petrochemical plants in previous years.

Some older projects are:

• The German-Iranian Chamber of Commerce reported Uhde’s involvement in building a petrochemical plant in Iran in 2005;[10]
• Uhde built a PVC complex in 2003;[11]
• Uhde concluded seven business agreements for the modernization of cement plants in Iran between 2003 and 2007.[12]
• It has to be mentioned, even if only in passing, that ThyssenKrupp is known for the manufacture of martensite hardened steel, which is needed to build centrifuges for military uses.[13]

What does the management of ThyssenKrupp think about its responsibility concerning its close relationship with the dictatorial and antisemitic regime?  When asked in an interview with the Jerusalem Post in April 2009 whether Germany has a special responsibility to Israel, company spokesman Klaus Pepperhoff answered that it does, but "whether a company has a special responsibility I cannot say off the top of my head."[14]

It’s no wonder that, in light of this longstanding cooperation, a spokesman of Iran’s state-run NPC (National Petroleum Company) responded to the United States’ economic sanctions with derision.  Gholam-Hossein Nejabat said, "We haven't faced any constraints in securing whatever technology we sought to acquire since the U.S. technologies are also offered by other countries (…).  We receive technology from such companies as Basell, (...) Linde, Uhde and many others."[15]

From these examples, it is extremely apparent that the close cooperation between high technology German companies and Iran cannot be so easily replaced by other countries.

Protests at the ThyssenKrupp annual meeting