has announced the dismissal of 266 workers at its plants in Cuenca and As Somozas (La Coruña), 51 in the first and 215 in the second. This second installation had been in the offing for months, with the prospect of closing this January, but not the first. The central government and those of Castilla-La Mancha and Galicia have already expressed their rejection of the decision.
The company directed by Andreas Nauen has reported its intention to initiate a collective dismissal procedure, prior to the closure of the two facilities, with a brief note sent to the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV). A press release complements that information.
The closure of the Somozas factory is due to the lack of orders for the blades of the SG 2.X-114 turbine model produced by the plant and the impossibility of manufacturing the larger models demanded by the market in a competitive manner. The firm does not have any confirmed order for this shovel model in Spain in 2021 and there is no forecast that there will be any project with this model in the future, due to lack of demand.
The Spanish market, like the global market in general, demands larger turbines that the Somozas plant cannot produce competitively because its costs are higher than those of other factories. In addition, in the case of SGRE’s longest turbines, with significant demand in the coming years, it would be impossible to manufacture them at the Somozas plant due to space and transportation limitations.
The company, the unions, the central and regional governments held a meeting in mid-December to try to find a solution, in which the Administration showed its willingness to help the company maintain and transform the production center, but without reaching no concrete agreement
In relation to the Cuenca plant, its activity was divided between the repair of blades and . With this second suspended, the costs of the first do not make it competitive, because the market trend is blade replacement instead of repair and because it also has space problems for large blades,
The company explains that an Employment Regulation File will be launched shortly and that negotiations with the workers’ representatives will begin in the coming days, in accordance with current regulations.
Improving competitiveness
This decision is part of the different actions that Siemens Gamesa has implemented to improve competitiveness, especially in its Onshore business, and to be profitable in a sustainable way. During the year 2020 it lost 918 million euros and is adapting its organization and its cost structure to regain competitiveness; plans to allocate about 500 million euros to achieve this.
“We urgently need to get back to profitability, and the only way to do that is with measures like this and others that we have put in place in the Onshore business over the last year and a half. We have looked at all the options, but “We have come to the conclusion that there is no possible alternative. These are harsh measures, but necessary to redirect the company’s situation and guarantee its sustainability and the employment of the more than 24,000 employees of Siemens Gamesa, some 4,400 of them in Spain”, said Lars Bondo Krogsgaard, CEO of Onshore at Siemens Gamesa. “We will do everything possible during negotiations with the unions to minimize the impact this decision has on our employees,” he added.
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