2023-07-13 16:54:22
For more than 150 years, Siemens has played a prominent role in the industrialization of the world. In line with this self-image, the Munich-based technology group continuously invests in its business. And when it comes to the domestic location, the board can rely on high-ranking visitors from politics. When Siemens boss Roland Busch announced in Erlangen on Thursday that he would invest one billion euros in Germany, he was flanked by Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) and Bavaria’s Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU).
“This investment is a strong signal for Germany as a location for innovation and production. The state-of-the-art production facility that is being built in Erlangen is a good example of how our economy is headed for a climate-neutral future – as a strong industrial country with good, future-proof jobs,” said Scholz. “We are laying the foundation for the industrial metaverse in the Nuremberg metropolitan region. Here on the new campus we connect the real with the digital world,” said Busch. Together they set out on a tour of the plant, and the chancellor then went to the canteen to drink coffee with a good two dozen Siemens employees.
Nowhere are more Simensians employed than in the Franconian metropolitan region
The investment decision by the Siemens board of directors in favor of the German locations was no longer a great surprise. A month ago, Busch announced in Singapore that it would invest a total of 2 billion euros in expanding its production, 200 million of which in a new plant for factory automation in the Asian city-state. And Siemens is also investing in China. Despite all geopolitical concerns, another 140 million euros are to be invested in a factory in Chengdu, China, for a new research and development center, among other things. But in the distribution of the investment sum – one billion in Germany, 140 million in China – there is also a subtle message from the Siemens managers: We see the dangers in our China business and are no longer fueling them. Without saying exactly this openly, Siemens is taking the path that the Federal Chancellor has described so often. A balanced China strategy therefore consists in minimizing risk, not in completely decoupling from the market in which one has previously done such brilliant business.
So now more Erlangen than Chengdu. The location was well chosen because, in addition to the headquarters in Munich and Berlin, Siemens has had a long history in Erlangen since the Second World War. Nowhere are more Siemens employees employed than in the Franconian metropolitan region to which Erlangen belongs. Of the 86,000 people in Germany, 38,500 work here at over 50 locations. And in Erlangen, which has 117,000 inhabitants, the group has been planning and building the “Siemens Campus” for more than one billion euros since 2014. It opened last December and is almost complete.
Not an energy-intensive company
Another campus for the expansion of research and development capacities is now being added. Siemens boss Busch left it open how many new jobs would be created there. In view of the current debate about the creeping deindustrialization of Germany and the ongoing outflow of capital, Busch said that the investment in Germany does not see itself as a wrong-way driver. However, Siemens is not an energy-intensive company either: Factors such as talent, economic ecosystems or infrastructure are more important for the group. In Erlangen, too, most of the investment goes into expanding the plant’s capacity.
A comment by Ilka Kopplin Published/Updated: , Recommendations: 14 Published/Updated: Johannes Winterhagen, Stuttgart Published/Updated: , Recommendations: 9
In the race for new factories, settlements and investments, the Americans are currently ahead of the Europeans. Siemens CEO Cedrik Neike recently gave the reasons for this in an interview with the FAZ: “In America, energy is cheap, access to labor is good, there are massive subsidies, and the regulations are simple. In purely mathematical terms, the USA is extremely attractive for companies.” Neike heads the Digital Industries division at Siemens. During the Corona crisis, this business received a good boost, also because local companies, in view of fragile supply chains and significantly increased freight costs, once again found proximity to the production site more important. The Digital Industries business achieved sales of 20 billion euros in the past fiscal year (as of the end of September) – and the trend is rising. Group-wide, Siemens generates around 72 billion euros.
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