What is described as the challenging market situation for power plant engineering is forcing plant constructor Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems to re-think its business strategy and reduce job numbers in Europe. The company currently employs some 1000 staff at its headquarters.
The company’s management and works council have begun talks around job losses and streamlining its organisation while seeking to alleviate hardship as far as possible. This process will take place in the spring.
Over the past 10 years, MHPSE has handled orders for power plants and key components valued at several billion Euros in Germany and internationally. However, with the decline of the market for new thermal power plant constructions in Germany and western Europe, the number of jobs will have to be reduced by more than a third.
Rainer Kiechl, CEO of MHPSE, explained "The energy turnaround has led to a structural rupture across the entire traditional power generation industry. In part, we managed to shield ourselves from it by tapping markets in Poland and South-East Europe … but even this could not fully offset the almost complete disappearance of our core market. We also invested early on in new technologies, such as energy storage, which ideally supplement volatile renewable energies. We have developed a long-term strategy to take us
through the next years. And then – dependent on the market and general political setting – it can bring us back into a period of growth. An adjustment of personnel numbers consistent with alleviating hardship is regrettably unavoidable in the current situation."
Along with new construction projects – particularly in promising markets – the company will in future concentrate chiefly on plant optimisation, power plant service, air quality control systems and innovative products. The company aims to become a leading European company for carbon emissions reductions in the field of power production.
