ThyssenKrupp may consider demanding compensation from its former chief executive and other managers for investments made in steel plants in Brazil and the United States.

The firm shocked investors on Dec. 2 by announcing it had swung to a 1.8 billion euro net loss for its financial year due to cost over-runs at its Brazil plant.

ThyssenKrupp parted company with the head of its Americas unit.

Former CEO Ekkehard Schulz, 70, said he would leave the supervisory board in response to criticism about the investments in Brazil and the United States.

On Tuesday ThyssenKrupp said it mandated an external expert in 2010 to study whether its supervisory board was required to file claims against the management board. It said at the time the expert had concluded there was no legal obligation for the company to pursue such claims.

"Due to the writedowns totalling €2.1 billion ($2.73 billion) for Steel Americas for the year to Sept. 30, 2011, the supervisory board has decided to ask the external law office to update its finding," the company said.

The Americas unit's new $12 billion facilities have been dogged by cost overruns and start-up delays since they were built in 2007.

In 2009, former steel board member Karl-Ulrich Koehler, also a subject of the expert report, left ThyssenKrupp in the wake of cost overruns in Brazil. He is now the chief executive of Tata Steel's European operations.

Schulz, dubbed "Iron Eki" and an engineer who had been with the company for around four decades, told a German daily this month that he was not aware of having made any professional mistakes in his investment decisions for the America's business but he was taking "political responsibility" by resigning.

German magazine Manager Magazin said on Tuesday in an excerpt of an article to be published on Friday that ThyssenKrupp had mandated law firm Hengeler Mueller to determine if Schulz could be made responsible for the huge cost overruns. The law firm could not immediately comment.

Cautious Customers

Separately, ThyssenKrupp Chief Executive Heinrich Hiesinger said he was still unable to provide a profit outlook for 2012.

Hiesinger told reporters at a conference in the western German city of Essen that he expects the real economy to slow down or stagnate, with customers staying on the sidelines and making no new orders for steel products before Christmas.

ThyssenKrupp - which also makes submarines, chemical plants and automotive components — said earlier this month its customers were ordering only as much steel as they required and were drawing down their inventories to a low level amid uncertainty over when the market would recover.

Arcelor Mittal, the world's biggest steelmaker, said in early November that a summer dip in demand was deepening into a second-half slump and that customers were increasingly cautious because of economic uncertainties.