Siemens to invest $346 million in India

NEW DELHI, INDIA - German industrial giant Siemens announced plans to invest $346 million in India over the next three years, about a third of which will go to making wind turbines.

"Our goal is to strengthen our position as the leading provider of green infrastructure solutions in India's booming market," Peter Loescher, president and CEO of Siemens AG, said recently, the Business Standard of India reports.

Noting that the Indian economy is expected to grow 7 percent this year and 8 percent next year, Loescher told reporters in New Delhi, "India has the people, the products and the innovation power. That's why we are expanding our presence here."

Loescher said he was positioning Siemens to "take advantage of the infrastructure development needs that exist in the country."

India currently suffers from acute power shortages, with about 30 percent of the population having no access to electricity.

The Indian government plans to add 150 gigawatts over the next seven years, an amount equal to Germany's entire installed capacity.

Armin Bruck, managing director of Siemens in Mumbai, said the company plans to locate a manufacturing plant near Tamil Nadu and Gujarat on India's west coast and expects to decide on the exact location within the next two to three weeks.

The plant would be operational by 2012 and initially will produce wind turbines with a capacity of 200 megawatts, eventually producing turbines of 500 megawatts.

As the world's fourth-largest producer of greenhouse gases, India hopes to produce 20 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2020 and plans to add 10,500 megawatts of wind capacity in the five years ending March 2012.

Siemens initially would focus on serving the domestic market for wind turbines as the Indian government promotes the adoption of renewable energy sources. But later India's low-cost engineering base could help the German company develop wind turbines into an export business, Bruck said.

Siemens plans to increase its Indian workforce from 17,000 to 25,000 people at a time when the company has recently announced job cuts in its mechanical engineering operations in Germany.

The company also announced plans to set up six manufacturing hubs in India to design, develop, produce and sell "value priced" products including signaling systems, steam turbines, and iron- and steel-making equipment. It hopes to generate revenue of $1.4 billion from the sale of such products by the end of 2020.