The majority of the cuts will be in Germany and about 1,800 will be in the U.S.
Siemens AG will slash 6,900 energy-related jobs worldwide as the company responds to market changes and strengthen its competitiveness on the global stage. The majority of the cuts will be in Germany and about 1,800 will be in the United States.
Siemens, which is the parent company of Siemens Healthineers, said about half of the jobs cuts will be in Germany. The remaining jobs that will be eliminated over a period of years include about 1,800 positions in the United States, Siemens said. While Siemens will be eliminating thousands, the company said it has about 3,200 job vacancies and will seek to transition “as many of the people affected by the restructuring” into those roles.
The company said in its Nov. 16 announcement that it has initiated a consolidation plan for its Power and Gas Division, the Power Generation Services Division and the Process Industries and Drives Division that will streamline the operation and make it more efficient. The company said the decision to slash the nearly 7,000 positions comes as global demand for large gas turbines has “fallen dramatically.” Siemens said it is unlikely that many of the industries that rely on its large turbines, such as mining, steel production or shipbuilding, will recover in the foreseeable future.
Although Siemens said it is experiencing a significant slowdown in its power divisions, the company is seeing growth in other business units and is expanding its workforce in those areas. Siemens employs about 372,000 people globally.
The changes in Siemens’ energy divisions comes as the company readies its Healthineers division to go public sometime next year. Last month, Siemens replaced the chief financial officer of its Healthineers unit as it readies for the transition. Medtech company Siemens Healthineers was formerly known as Siemens Healthcare. Siemens Healthineers is the separately managed healthcare business of Siemens AG. Taking the Healthineers business unit public would allow it to make moves to grow the business as is necessary. By becoming a publicly traded entity, the Healthineers unit will have more power to make fast and necessary moves to grow the business. It will also give the business unit more flexibility to make acquisitions. Some companies that the Healthineers unit could potentially work with in collaboration or as possible acquisition targets include Varian, Agilent and Accuray. When announcing the new CFO in October, Michael Sen, chairman of the supervisory board of Siemens Healthineers, said the company is “driving the public listing of Healthineers systematically and with the utmost care. The roadmap is in place and we’re making good progress.”
The Healthineers unit has been busy expanding in the United States. In July, the Healthineers broke ground on a $300 million expansion in Massachusetts for its laboratory diagnostics manufacturing and research and development facility. The $300 million investment represents one of the single largest investments the company has made in the U.S.
