Acknowledging the difficulties ahead for its gas-powered turbine operations, Siemens (NYSE: SI) has decided to cut 1,100 jobs across two of its energy facilities in Germany.
The company disclosed that yearly production has decreased from 45-50 turbines to just 30-35 units. This anemic demand, combined with increased competition and an unfriendly investing climate resulted in the jobs decision.
Bloomberg reports:
“We’ve slipped because the market’s not functioning in the same way that it used to,” Kunde said at a gathering of Siemens worker representatives at the IG Metall union’s Berlin offices. “Many utilities lack the courage to invest,” as Germany shifts energy output from fossil and nuclear fuels to renewable sources.
Siemens is based in Munich, Germany, and the company manufactures 50-hertz turbines at the Berlin facility.
Demand for shale gas-fueled plants in the U.S. could benefit the company, but the Berlin facility is struggling to stay relevant. Fossil power used to account for almost 90 percent of all operating profit from Siemens’ energy divisions over the fiscal year 2012, Bloomberg reports, and almost 26 percent of the company’s total. But the shift in focus to renewables and away from fossil power has hurt Siemens quite a bit.
These job losses are part of Siemens’ 6 billion euro cost-cutting plan, and they come in addition to 1,900 positions that have been eliminated in its power-transmission division and another 615 jobs erased from the company’s American wind operations.
Just recently, Siemens decided to withdraw completely from the solar sector, citing unattractive economies of scale and a difficult market overall.
