Siemens opens new blade factory in Berlin...

In May this year Siemens dedicated a new hall for blade production at its Berlin gas turbine plant, enlarging the production area by 3100 m2 and confirming its commitment to Berlin as an industrial base. It expects that by 2011 this investment will have have created 200 new jobs at the plant, 60 of them in blade making. The new building will be used primarily for the machining of turbine guide blades. The dedication ceremony was attended by Federal Minister of Economics and Technology Dr Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, and chairman of Siemens AG Peter Löscher.

To date, Siemens has invested about r15 million in the construction and equipping of the building. The hall was constructed in accordance with the EU’s ‘Green Building’ code – resulting in a building energy consumption 25 % lower than statutory requirements and enabling annual carbon dioxide savings of 1775 tonnes.

‘We are pleased that Siemens is sticking with the Berlin location and not only securing jobs but also creating new ones even in these turbulent times’ said Herr zu Guttenberg. Siemens is the major employer in the industrial sector in Berlin and has its largest production facility worldwide located there. It is also the site where what Siemens asserts is the world’s most powerful gas turbine is manufactured. Turbines have been produced in the Peter Behrens building, a protected historic monument at the plant, for 100 years. The plant’s output helped Siemens post a revenue figure of almost r19 billion in fiscal 2008, about a quarter of the company’s total revenue.

...and expands ST production in India

Siemens is to expand its steam turbine production in India at a cost of r40 million. A new 14000 m2 production facility is planned, to be located in the state of Gujarat, paving the way for the company’s production of industrial steam turbines for power generation to triple by 2010. The expanded facility’s output is destined in the main for the Indian market but will also be exported throughout Asia and Africa.

‘For emerging countries like India efficient, eco-friendly power generation is enormously important’ says Armin Bruck, managing director of Siemens India. ‘By tripling our local production capacity we will strengthen our global manufacturing network and be well prepared to utilise the good growth prospects in India.’ Industrial turbines with ratings up to 45 MW have to date been produced in Vadodara.

The location is part of Siemens manufacturing network for industrial turbines, which is managed from Görlitz where recently the company inaugurated a new production facility to enable it to better meet the demand for medium-size steam turbines.

High-efficiency industrial steam turbines are an important feature of Siemens environmental portfolio, with which the company posted revenue totalling almost r19 billion in fiscal 2008. That is equivalent to around a quarter of the company’s total revenue and makes Siemens, by its own estimate, the world’s leading green infrastructure provider.