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"Moody’s cut the credit rating of German steel behemoth Thyssenkrupp further into junk territory on Monday, as the group’s cost-cutting efforts collide with weakened profitability due to lower steel prices.

The rating agency slashed the group’s rating by a notch to Ba2 from Ba1, giving it a stable outlook, writes Patrick McGee in Frankfurt.

The Essen-based company is best known as a maker of elevators, escalators, and industrial components. The credit downgrade could come as a surprise to some, as Heinrich Hiesinger, who became chief executive in 2011, has embarked on a turnround strategy to cut costs and dispose of non-core units.

The strategy has been bearing fruit: last year ThyssenKrupp recorded positive cash flow for the first time since 2006, enabling the company to lift its dividend by more than a third, to €0.15 a share. It recorded a 4 per cent uptick in revenue, to €42.8bn, while net income jumped 37 per cent to €268m. Its dividend was only introduced a year before, when it posted its first annual net profit in three years.

However, some investors thought Thyssenkrupp should have left its dividend unchanged and focus on bolstering its balance sheet instead. Moody’s appears to agree. It warned that it was concerned that 2016 profitability “will be weaker than initially expected with neutral to low negative cash flow generation and no deleveraging.” It said “low steel prices in Europe and the recession in Brazil” will make it difficult to improve cash generation this year.

Rating agency S&P, which also rates the group in “junk” territory at an equivalent “BB” rating, warned in January that low steel prices could hurt profitability. “Share prices of all major steel producers have also dropped substantially, making it more difficult for these companies to raise new equity to restore their balance sheets.”

Thyssenkrupp shares have fallen a third over the last 12 months.

On the stable outlook, Moody’s said:

"The stable outlook mainly reflects Moody’s view that benefits from thyssenkrupp’s cost reduction programme ‘impact’, growth from the capital goods businesses and expected improvement of the steel pricing environment in Europe in the second half of 2016 will offset somewhat profitability pressures from the current harsh steel market environment."

Here's a visual guide of the various ratings: