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.

The logo of German industrial group Siemens is seen in Zurich, Switzerland