UPDATE 5-Brazil steel mill losses push ThyssenKrupp into red

* Steel Americas CEO to leave at end of year

* Full-year impairment 2.9 bln euros

* Net loss 1.78 bln euros vs 927 mln profit yr ago

* Maintains flat dividend of 0.45 eur/shr

* Shares close down 6 pct, biggest German blue-chip faller

By Tom Käckenhoff and Marilyn Gerlach

ESSEN/BERLIN, Dec 2 (Reuters) - ThyssenKrupp AG , Germany's biggest steelmaker, swung to a 1.8 billion euro ($2.4 billion) net loss this year due to cost overruns at its Brazil plant and parted company with the head of its Americas unit.

The steelmaker said on Friday that Steel Americas Chief Executive Hans Fischer would leave the company this year after arriving last February from domestic rival Salzgitter.

ThyssenKrupp blamed higher costs at the plant in Brazil, operated by Steel Americas, a strong Brazilian real and weak U.S. and European markets for accounting losses of 2.9 billion euros.

"For the current fiscal year, a significant improvement is not expected until the second half, with the start-up of the third coke oven battery and an improvement in input material consumption rates," it said.

It expects Steel Americas to post another loss in the current financial year, while volume and earnings are expected to decline at Steel Europe.

"The renewed weakness of markets in the US and Europe ... is hampering market entry for the products of the Steel Americas business area," the company said.

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

Analysts said losses at Steel Americas were due to higher consumption of imported coke and natural gas at the Brazil plant, while customers have adopted a wait-and-see stance amid a deepening debt crisis in Europe and fears of a recession.

"It's a bit of a graveyard over there for their steel executives. One executive left a few years ago because of the problems there," said an analyst who declined to be named.

DEMAND SLUMP

ThyssenKrupp said it could not make a reliable prediction on how its current fiscal year would develop due to uncertainty over how the debt crisis in Europe may affect the real economy.

It said that for the first quarter to December 2011, it expected operating profit to be significantly lower year than in the same period last year.

"The current environment is not easy," CEO Heinrich Hiesinger said.

Hiesinger announced a shutdown of one of four blast furnaces from January to adjust production to lower demand, following similar steps by ArcelorMittal, the world's largest steelmaker.

"The traditional recovery after the summer vacation period has so far failed to materialise," the German steelmaker said.

"Due to uncertainty about further market developments, customers are reacting with caution despite relatively good operating levels, and are only ordering as required. They are drawing down their inventories to a low level."

Hiesinger reiterated a plan to divest the stainless steel business, now called Inoxum, by around the end of 2012 as part of its strategy to expand non-steel businesses and reduce debt.

He said all options -- float, spin-off or sale -- remained.

The company has booked an impairment charge of 800 million euros on the value of Inoxum to reflect its current market value, and Hiesinger said "the impairment is a clear statement of how serious we are" about divesting the business.

ThyssenKrupp posted earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) for the year ended September, excluding one-offs and impairments, of 1.7 billion euros, missing its 2 billion target.

Its net loss was 1.78 billion euros compared with 927 million profit the previous year.

Most analysts had already lowered estimates for ThyssenKrupp's full-year results after a seasonal summer lull in sector demand had extended into a slowdown amid uncertainties in the world economy.