Challenging market situation requires personnel adjustment and realignment

The management and the works council of Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems Europe GmbH (MHPSE) have begun talks around job losses and streamlining its organization while seeking to alleviate hardship to the utmost extent. This process will take place in spring.

Over the past 10 years, MHPSE has successfully 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, explains, "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, and by operating successfully there. 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 optimization, power plant service, Air Quality Control Systems (AQCS) and innovative products / approaches. This strategy is supported by our group parent company – worldwide operating Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems, Ltd (MHPS). Rainer Kiechl concludes: "We remain a centre of excellence for power plant engineering within the global MHPS network. Our aim is to become a leading European company for CO2 emissions reductions in the field of power production."