Siemens expects boost to green sales

By Daniel Schäfer in Frankfurt
Published: March 23 2009 18:50

Siemens, on Monday, said it expected a boost to its plans to increase the share of “green product” sales, thanks to worldwide government programmes which are designed to mitigate the global recession.
Peter Löscher, chief executive, told the Financial Times that Europe’s largest engineering group expected to get a stimulus for such products from various state-sponsored schemes.

“One thing is crystal clear: even during the crisis we will substantially increase the share of our sales which are attributable to green technologies,” Mr Löscher said.
Siemens’ “green products” – which have often been criticised by climate experts for not always being environmentally friendly – comprise a slew of diverse goods ranging from energy-efficient lights to trains and gas turbines.
Governments around the world are using large chunks of their stimulus programmes to invest in a “green” modernisation of their infrastructure.
Barack Obama, US president, has made this one of his major political aims, and China is dedicating one-fourth of its sizable stimulus plan to scale up renewable fuels, environmental protection and energy conservation.
Ban Ki-moon, UN secretary-general, recently called for a “green new deal” to counter the worldwide recession and global warming at the same time.
Mr Löscher will meet Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, the German economics minister, on Tuesday in Berlin to discuss ways to tackle climate change amid the recession.
He said Siemens would stick to its target to increase sales in its green product portfolio from €19bn ($23bn) in the past year to €25bn in 2011, even in the light of the drastic worldwide recession that has started to hit the group’s order inflow in the last quarter.
“On the one hand, our target is more ambitious in the current economic environment,” Mr Löscher said.
“But on the other, Siemens will get a stimulus from the infrastructure programmes being launched.”
Last week, Siemens announced that it would build another 100 high-speed trains for China in a contract worth €750m.
In January, the group said it would adhere to its full-year forecast of an operating profit of €8bn-€8.5bn, thanks largely to infrastructure programmes.
Analysts and investors have nervously looked for signs that Siemens’ energy sector could be hit by order cancellations in the wake of the credit crisis.
Wolfgang Dehen, head of the energy sector, dismissed this recently when he said there had been no such cancellations or postponements.
Siemens first spelled out its green product portfolio in 2008, after years during which US rival General Electric had successfully marketed its “Ecomagination” programme.
Last year, GE made €13bn in green sales, compared with Siemens’ €19bn and Philips’ €6bn.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009