Siemens to cut 2,700 jobs from power generation division

German industrial giant Siemens is to cut 2,700 jobs in its power generation division, 1,400 of them in Germany, the company said on Tuesday.
Its bases in Berlin and the Bavarian city of Erlangen will be the worst affected. Siemens has long been feeling the strain from overcapacity in the gas turbine market and the Energiewende, or energy transition, Germany's drive to use more renewable energy sources.
 Although long-term maintenance contracts continue to generate good profits, sales fell to 2.8 billion euros (3.1 billion dollars) in the past quarter. Siemens already announced significant job cuts and a reorganization in the autumn.
 In May, the company announced that its power generation division, called Gas and Power (GP), would have to find a further 500 million euros in addition to an existing programme of cuts. The latest changes are expected to achieve that through a combination of merging different businesses, a new regional set-up and optimizing of support functions. Chief executive Joe Kaeser plans to float the division on the stock exchange by September next year.
Executive board member Lisa Davis said the measures would "help us to create more growth opportunities." The IG Metall workers' union said the plans were unimaginative. "In a market that is growing in the long term, with long cycles, a short-term reduction in the number of employees is not the right way to go, especially in view of the increasing shortage of skilled workers," it said.