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Siemens plans to cut over 6,000 jobs worldwide, the German industrial giant announced Tuesday, citing weak demand and increased competition in China and its home market. The cuts, about two percent of its global workforce, will mostly affect its factory automation unit, with some positions also impacted in its electric vehicle charging business.
"Muted demand primarily in the key markets of China and Germany coupled with increased competitive pressures have considerably reduced orders and revenue in the industrial automation business," said the group in a statement.
The "aim is to strengthen the future competitiveness of the businesses affected and enable investments in growth markets," it said. Siemens, whose sprawling global business runs from making trains and factory equipment to systems that manage data centres, has been struggling amid slowdowns in both China and Europe's biggest economy, which has been mired in recession for the past two years.
About 5,600 of the job cuts will be made by 2027 in the automation business, which supplies robotics, other machinery and industrial software to factories, with about half the roles lost in Germany.
Problems in the automation unit hit Siemens's earnings at the end of last year, dragging quarterly operating profit down to 2.5 billion euros ($2.7 billion) from 2.7 billion euros a year earlier.
In its vehicle charging business, the group plans to cut 450 positions from a total of 1,300 employed in the operation worldwide by the end of the current financial year. With "limited growth potential for low-power charging stations", Siemens said it planned to focus on areas like fast-charging infrastructure.
German carmakers and their suppliers alike have been facing severe headwinds due to a slowdown in demand for electric cars.
For employees affected by the layoffs in Germany, Siemens will seek to find some of them new roles within the group. Some jobs will also be lost through people retiring. At the end of last year, Siemens employed about 313,000 people worldwide, including about 86,000 in Germany.
