Industry: Siemens presents strong numbers and defends job cuts

At Siemens, business is going well despite all the global economic upheavals. The group increased sales and results in the second quarter, as he announced. The bottom line was that a profit of 2.4 billion euros remained in the second quarter of the financial year from January to March. That was around 11 percent more than a year ago.

The problem child automation also leaves the demand problems behind. The shops there are supposed to put on again. However, the planned deletion of thousands of jobs is out of the question, as CFO Ralf P. Thomas emphasizes. The measures are not a reaction to the current situation, but a structural decision forward. The current dress was expected. The situation that you now find is “exactly what we expected in the decision”.

CEO Roland Busch set the planned job cuts – by September 2027 alone, 5,600 jobs are to be eliminated in automation, 2,600 of them in Germany, in relation to the 73,000 employees in the field of digital industries, belongs to automation.

It is not the case that Siemens cuts into its own meat and then not prepared for growth. However, the group has a lot of cost. In the current financial year alone, Siemens expects “expenses for personnel structure in a range between 500 million and 600 million euros,” said Thomas.

Resistant to tariffs

Siemens, on the other hand, expect a limited effect on their own results from the US tariffs. “Our worldwide presence makes us resistant,” emphasized CEO Busch. Thomas referred to the “very well diversified value chain worldwide” with 28 factories and 48,000 employees in the USA.

Thomas also confirmed the outlook for the financial year, which tends to continue to increase profits. Sales should also grow. In the past quarter he rose by 7 percent to 19.8 billion euros.

The problem child comes out of the crisis

The Smart Infrastructure area in particular is booming in the past quarter. The result increased by almost two thirds, albeit partly thanks to a profit from the sale of a smaller area.

This was more than equal than the decline in digital industries, which also includes the problematic automation business. And the former model student, who had recently become a problem child, comes out of the crisis: According to Siemens, the automation business recorded a significant growth in order. In China it was a whopping 41 percent.

Most recently, the area had suffered from the fact that customers and trade sat on high stocks that reduced them instead of giving up new orders. This breakdown has recently come to an end in China, it said. Here Siemens can hope to put on the business. In Germany, on the other hand, the automation orders are “considerably declining”.