Siemens is increasing its investments in factories. They are distributed worldwide and Europe and Germany also get a lot.
Siemens is ramping up its global investments in factories and other facilities. In the current year, investments totaling 2 billion euros are to be announced, as the company announced on Thursday. That is twice as much as in the last two years together, said CEO Roland Busch. However, as of Thursday, around 1.2 billion are already known. The remaining 800 million are to go to the USA and Europe, but what exactly Busch left open.
Siemens recently announced the construction of a new high-tech factory in Singapore with 400 jobs for 200 million. In addition, the plant in Chengdu, China, will be expanded for 140 million euros, which will also create 400 new jobs. Both factories manufacture automation technology for machines and production facilities.
Investments in the Czech Republic, Amberg, Frankfurt and the USA, among others, have been known for some time. Parallel to the 2 billion euro investments, Siemens intends to increase its spending on research and development. They are said to be 500 million more than the previous year, which will benefit the areas of artificial intelligence and the industrial metaverse in particular, in which Siemens is working with Nvidia and Microsoft, among others. Both figures include the majority stake in Siemens Healthineers. According to Busch, this amounts to 260 million for the investments known to date.
Great demand in China
Busch justified the decision in favor of Singapore as the location for the new factory, among other things, that all Asian markets could be supplied from there thanks to the free trade agreement. The head of the group denied reports that he actually preferred China as a location and that Singapore was only awarded the contract due to pressure from the supervisory board. Political demands that the economy should become more independent of China also had nothing to do with it. In addition, one is also investing in China in order to serve the strong demand there. Overall, Siemens wants to diversify its production and make it more independent.
Siemens is growing significantly faster than the market, said Busch. “As such, today we are announcing an investment strategy to fuel future growth, drive innovation and also increase our own resilience.”
Busch did not say on Thursday how much of the 2 billion euros will ultimately be invested in Germany. When asked whether most of the jobs would be created outside of Germany, he said no.
Business at Siemens is booming at the moment. In the fiscal year that has been running since October, the group has already raised its forecast twice.
Source: Stern
