ThyssenKrupp performed in line with expectations in the 1st quarter 2007/2008. Order intake and sales reached the high levels of the prior-year quarter. The Group's earnings before taxes amounted to EUR 646
million. Before major nonrecurring items EBT was EUR 715 million. Profits were therefore higher than planned but, as expected, lower than a year earlier. The prior-year quarter was boosted by exceptionally strong demand
and very high base prices for stainless steel, which were both absent in the reporting quarter in the Stainless and Services segments.
Executive Board Chairman Dr. Ekkehard Schulz: "For 2007/2008 we forecast earnings before taxes and major nonrecurring items, including project costs for the steel mills in Brazil and the USA, of over EUR 3 billion.
For our Steel segment we expect 2008 to be another good steel year. The signs for this on the market have been increasing recently. We also expect continued lively demand and a significant improvement in prices in the
Stainless segment. Our Technologies segment has orders in hand of around EUR 16 billion which will provide high earnings quality for some years to come. At Elevator we expect earnings to remain solid among other things on account of the business's high share of services. And in the Services segment we are profiting from good demand and increasing prices for materials and services in particular as a result of infrastructure
building in the growth regions of the world. As things stand at present, we expect sales of EUR 53 billion in the current fiscal year."
The mid-term sales target for ThyssenKrupp is EUR 60 billion, while the mid-term goal for sustainable earnings before taxes and major nonrecurring items is EUR 4 billion. In the longer term, especially after the startup
of the steel mills of Steel and Stainless in North America and the investments of the other segments in other regions, ThyssenKrupp aims to achieve sales of around EUR 65 billion and earnings before taxes and major
nonrecurring items of EUR 4.5 to 5.0 billion.
The highlights for the 1st quarter 2007/2008 were as follows:

- Order intake, as in the prior-year quarter, was EUR 13.3 billion.

- Sales were EUR 12.3 billion, again as in the prior-year quarter.

- EBITDA was EUR 1,083 million, compared with EUR 1,507 million in the
prior year.

- Earnings before taxes reached EUR 646 million, compared with EUR 1,062
million in the prior-year quarter.

- Earnings per share came to EUR 0.85, compared with EUR 1.31 in the
prior-year quarter.

- Net financial liabilities at December 31, 2007 were EUR 859 million - an
increase of EUR 1,082 million compared with September 30, 2007, when net
financial receivables of EUR 223 million were reported. The increase in
the 1st quarter is thus roughly the same as the change in the prior-year
quarter, when there was an increase of EUR 1,138 million.