The business with renewable energies continues to pull down the entire Siemens Energy Group.
(Photo: Reuters)
Munich The energy technology specialist Siemens Energy is now expecting increasing losses in the current fiscal year due to red numbers in the wind power business. “The success of the wind business remains the basic requirement for us to become a profitable market leader in the field of energy transition,” said Siemens Energy CEO Christian Bruch on Monday when the quarterly figures were presented.
Siemens Energy originally wanted to significantly reduce the previous year’s loss of 647 million euros in the current 2022/23 fiscal year, which ends on September 30. After a weak first quarter, the forecast was lowered once, and Bruch now expected a net loss at the previous year’s level.
After the second quarter, expectations have been reduced again. The Dax group now assumes that the loss “will exceed the level of the previous year by up to a low three-digit million amount”.
The wind power subsidiary Siemens Gamesa is solely responsible for this. In the second quarter, the loss in the renewable energies business increased again by almost 20 percent to 386 million euros.
In the group as a whole, however, the minus was reduced from 256 to 189 million euros. Sales increased significantly by almost 24 percent to a good eight billion euros. The operating result was slightly positive.
Some problems in renewable energies are homegrown
Siemens Energy had completely taken over the crisis subsidiary Gamesa in order to get the problems under control. The integration is currently in progress. The wind power division suffers from a number of problems. The entire industry is struggling with the fact that the increased prices for steel, for example, could not be passed on to customers because the contracts did not provide for this.
At Siemens Gamesa, there were many homegrown problems. Only a few synergies were used between the onshore segment with the wind turbines on land and the offshore segment.
In addition, the launch of the first jointly developed platform 5.X went poorly. Siemens Energy changed the boss several times and finally sent the proven crisis manager Jochen Eickholt to Spain.
All sides trust this to turn the tide – but it takes time. The projects often run for several years. “Eickholt has set some points in the right direction,” it is said in supervisory board circles. The orders that are newly brought in are more profitable. In addition, the top manager works intensively on the processes.
Siemens Energy has only made losses since it was spun off from the former parent company Siemens. The problems with renewables hide the fact that business with gas-fired power plants and electricity grids is very solid.
Sales are now expected to increase by double digits
Siemens Energy was even able to increase its sales forecast for the year as a whole. The group now expects an increase in revenue of ten to twelve percent. Most recently, the forecast was three to seven percent.
A report by the Handelsblatt newspaper that the division with high-voltage components is being prepared for a possible sale has caused unrest in the group. The business area includes, for example, insulators, arresters and coils for substations.
The core are the activities of the company Trench Group, which Siemens took over almost 20 years ago. According to information from the Handelsblatt from industry circles, the unit with 2,500 employees recently achieved sales in the hundreds of millions. IG Metall criticized that it was a “questionable style” for employees to find out about the plans from the press.
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