Siemens Gamesa lays off 190 workers at US factories

Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy (SGRE) is slashing its US workforce by 32%, with 190 workers from manufacturing plants in Kansas and Iowa being let go. 

In a statement, the company’s CEO of Onshore North America, Shannon Sturgil, said the decision was down to the halt in production as the company awaited the International Trade Commission’s (ITC) ruling on a patent infringement suit by GE (which largely ruled in SGRE’s favour) and a delay in turbine orders ahead of new clean power legislation from the US Congress.

SGRE said the job cuts comprised 69 employees at its Hutchinson nacelle plant in Kansas and 121 employees at its blade factory in Fort Madison, Iowa. The company said it was looking to redeploy them in other areas of the business where possible. Nonetheless, the move will leave just 117 workers in Hutchinson and 254 in Fort Madison.

“Two primary factors contributed to this decision,” Sturgil said. “While the final ruling of the ITC on the recent patent challenge case brought by a competitor was ultimately in our favour, we were temporarily prevented from pursuing new orders during the determination period.”

He said the slowdown in orders because of delays to the “build back better” bill also “impacts our ability to rebound quickly to normal levels of production in those facilities”. The job cuts are a measure to enable Siemens Gamesa to “bridge the gap at its production facilities and prepare for when the market resumes its expected growth levels”.

The job cuts follow SGRE reporting a triple-figure million euro loss for the first quarter of its 2022 financial year. It also revised its guidance for the full financial year, anticipating a 3% year-on-year decrease in turbine orders. The company said supply challenges, market volatility and difficulties in ramping up production for its 5.X onshore turbine platform were behind the downgraded forecast.