Mr Hans Fischer, currently a member of the executive board of Salzgitter AG, will become chairman of the management board of the ThyssenKrupp Steel Americas business area effective 1 February 2010. He will thus assume the position originally intended for Mr Erich Heine, who tragically lost his life in an air crash on 1 June 2009. The position is currently held in an acting capacity by Mr Edwin Eichler, member of the executive board of ThyssenKrupp AG and chairman of the Steel Europe business area. The Steel Americas business area focuses the production, processing and marketing of high quality carbon steel in North and South America. It combines the companies ThyssenKrupp CSA Siderúrgica do Atlantico in Brazil and ThyssenKrupp Steel USA LLC in the USA. After start up of the plants currently under construction in Brazil, with an annual capacity of 5 million tonnes of slabs, and the USA, with an annual hot rolled capacity of 5 million tonnes, the Steel Americas business area will mainly supply the automotive and appliance industries in the NAFTA markets with flat steel products.