The biggest German steelmaker, ThyssenKrupp, hopes to make a pre-tax profit of at least €1 billion in its current fiscal year, its boss said yesterday in an interview.

“For the pre-tax profit we are headed for a figure of a billion, or more,” Ekkehard Schulz told the business daily Handelsblatt. In its 2008/2009 fiscal year the group suffered a pre-tax loss of €2.4 billion owing in part to a global economic slump.

Schulz said the group had managed to cut costs and also expected sales to gain in the 2010/2011 year, noting that its biggest steel furnaces were operating at full capacity. Its business year begins on October 1.

Schulz is to step down as chairman in January and be replaced by Heinrich Hiesinger, who was recruited from Siemens.