Group leader Andreas Nauen has to take his hat off again at Siemens. Supply chain problems, skyrocketing costs and project delays are giving the wind turbine builder a hard time.
The ailing wind turbine manufacturer Siemens Gamesa is changing its boss again: After the second profit warning within six months, group leader Andreas Nauen has to resign after less than two years in office.
The new boss Jochen Eickholt is currently still on the board of parent Siemens Energy, which holds 67 percent of the Spanish company. In the first quarter, Gamesa wrote losses worth millions.
“We need a fresh start,” said Gamesa’s chairman of the board, Miguel Angel López, at an analysts’ conference on Thursday. The priority here is to stabilize the onshore wind turbine business, which has been weakening for years. The onshore business is – also with a view to the lucrative service contracts – “extremely important” for Gamesa. In contrast, the other two areas with marine facilities (offshore) and services performed well. The news did not calm investors on the stock exchange. Gamesa and Siemens Energy shares fell slightly.
Already speculated about change
After lowering the business outlook and weak preliminary figures for the first quarter (as of the end of December), there had already been speculation about a change at Siemens Gamesa. Wednesday evening came the end at the end of the month. Nauen only took over the post about a year and a half ago, replacing the hapless boss Markus Tacke. Despite a series of restructuring efforts, however, he continued almost seamlessly from his predecessor, who had also failed to keep the earnings promises on several occasions.
In January, Gamesa reduced its forecast for the new 2021/22 financial year (ending at the end of September) due to supply chain problems, skyrocketing costs, project delays and defects with its new land turbine. The wind turbine manufacturer had already reduced its expectations considerably last summer. In the first quarter of the year, Siemens Gamesa slipped deep into the red and posted a bottom line loss of 403 million euros – after a small profit of eleven million euros in the same period last year.
In addition to external factors such as rising procurement and logistics costs, the land turbine business continues to cause problems. Here, among other things, contracts for projects concluded at fixed costs are now having a disadvantageous effect on the wind turbine manufacturer. In addition, the new Landturbine 5.X continues to cause problems, technical defects must be corrected here.
measures already announced
Nauen had therefore already announced further stabilization measures. The group is currently urging customers to adjust their contracts in order to absorb the high costs – and thus price increases. In addition, Gamesa is working on further measures to counter rising costs in the supply chain and to keep personnel costs under control, it said on Thursday without further details. Gamesa is also considering divesting its wind farm pipeline in southern Europe.
The problems at Siemens Gamesa had caused annoyance at the parent company Energy, the energy technology group had also had to lower its forecast after the profit warning. With a view to climate change and the efforts of politicians to decarbonize, Gamesa is actually considered a growth driver. In the long term, the wind turbine manufacturer therefore remains optimistic and reaffirmed the goals for the coming years. There has long been speculation on the market as to whether Siemens Energy will take over the Spanish subsidiary completely in order to take better action and thus be able to restructure it more quickly.
Source: Stern
Jane Stock is a technology author, who has written for 24 Hours World. She writes about the latest in technology news and trends, and is always on the lookout for new and innovative ways to improve his audience’s experience.
