Siemens to Strengthen its Water Business: Worldwide Re-organization Secures Opportunities for Growth

“By integrating our business in this way, we will lay the foundations for further growth in water business and expansion of our position in the market”, explained Joergen Ole Haslestad, CEO of the Industry Solutions Division (IS), during a press conference in Munich on Wednesday. In the future, the Water Technologies business of IS will be divided among four segments: industry, municipal, chemical feed and services.

Since the acquisition of USFilter in 2004, the worldwide water business of Siemens has grown to a total of 2 billion euros, according to the latest figures. In addition, the company’s water business, which was originally US-based, has turned over more than one third outside of U.S. For Haslestad, this is a “clear demonstration of what the global Siemens network can achieve”.

He now expects further growth – primarily from the expansion of global service business: “Service business and partnerships with our customers for providing and keeping their equipment maintained – from installation and modernization to expansion of capacity – not only lends impetus to the market but also has potential in respect of volume and earnings”, said Haslestad. With its global network, Siemens has created an outstanding general framework for further development of its water business in future.

In the new organization, the four segments will drive growth by combining responsibility for service development with product management. There will be a direct connection between technology and service offerings. “As a result of this integration, we will enable joint development of our service portfolio with all its products, systems and solutions”, pointed out Haslestad. Moreover, he continued, sales opportunities in different countries would be improved by the worldwide service network while development and market launching of innovations would be made more efficient.

In future, the industry segment will offer products, services, and solutions for process water, wastewater, recycle and reuse, and waste-to-energy in the biopharmaceutical, chemical, food, microelectronics, oil and gas industries, and power, as well as in pulp and paper and in open-cast mining and in the production of iron and steel. The municipal business segment will bear worldwide responsibility for products, solutions and aftermarket services for drinking water, wastewater, reuse, as well as for the automation of sewage plants and pipeline networks. The chemical feed segment will continue to offer its disinfection portfolio to industry and communities worldwide.

In the context of the re-organization of “Water Technologies”, Haslestad wants to tighten up the way in which the segments are run, in addition to having a stronger orientation to the market and focusing on target groups. “We will structure the complex business taken over from USFilter more clearly and make it more effective by centralizing processes and standardizing the portfolio”, said Haslestad. “We intend to continue growing more quickly than the market, which is currently expanding at a rate of six percent per year worldwide – and we want to achieve this goal especially in individual regions such as China and India where the growth potential is double the global average. Now that we have a central platform in Singapore for our business in Asia and in Dubai and Abu Dhabi for the Middle East, we will pursue this strategy in Europe as well”, said Haslestad. Before the end of this year, the aim is to centrally coordinate water business for Europe in order to accelerate regional expansion and intensify the company's local presence.

The Siemens Industry Sector (Erlangen, Germany) is the world's leading supplier of production, transportation and building systems. Integrated hardware and software technologies combined with comprehensive industry-specific solutions enable Siemens to enhance the productivity and efficiency of its customers in industry and infrastructure. The Sector comprises six Divisions: Building Technologies, Industry Automation, Industry Solutions, Mobility, Drive Technologies and Osram. In fiscal 2007 (ended September 30), Siemens Industry generated sales of approximately EUR40 billion (pro forma, unconsolidated) with around 209,000 employees worldwide.

With the business activities of Siemens VAI Metal Technologies, (Linz, Austria), Siemens Water Technologies (Warrendale, Pa., U.S.A.), and Industry Technologies, (Erlangen, Germany), the Siemens Industry Solutions Division (Erlangen, Germany) is one of the world's leading solution and service providers for industrial and infrastructure facilities. Using its own products, systems and process technologies, Industry Solutions develops and builds plants for end customers, commissions them and provides support during their entire life cycle.