GERMANY’S SIEMENS TO SLASH THOUSANDS OF JOBS AMID SHIFT TO RENEWABLE ENERGY
German electrical engineering giant Siemens AG on Thursday said it would restructure its business in response to falling sales for turbines due to sweeping changes to the way electricity is made, write Zeke Turner and William Boston.
The German conglomerate said it would cut 6,900 jobs world-wide, or 2% of its total workforce.
The cuts affect three of its oldest units that provide gigantic turbines, industrial motors and other heavy equipment to clients that range from electrical utilities to commodities companies to the oil-and-gas industry.
Demand for gas turbines that generate more than 100 megawatts has fallen to about 110 turbines a year, Siemens said Thursday, compared with world-wide production capacity for Siemens and its competitors of some 400 of these turbines a year.
Siemens like other firms has been caught unprepared for governments’ and companies’ shift away from large, fossil fuel-powered plants to renewables, which make electricity in a decentralized way and without the need to move massive amounts of steam through one of Siemens’s mighty turbines.
The restructuring at Siemens comes just days after rival General Electric Co. admitted misjudging demand in its own core power businesses and announced it would halve its dividend and launch a sweeping restructuring.
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