As corporate financial reporting season gets underway, Siemens AG said it has seen a big jump in orders over the past year, including a 48 percent increase in sales of renewable energy equipment such as wind turbines, which brought in €977 million.
The report from the German electronics and engineering giant is yet another sign that a sustained global economic recovery was underway in the year that ended 30 September.
“We are coming out of the economic downturn with full momentum,” said Siemens CEO Peter Löscher in a statement.
Although Siemens continues to generate most of its sales from traditional business areas such as equipment for manufacturers and utilities, renewable energy – and the wind sector in particular — has become one of the firm’s fastest-growing divisions, helping it off-set heavy losses this year related to its overvaluing a laboratory diagnostics business it acquired.
Major orders in the fourth quarter of 2010 included the sale of 72 of its 2.3 MW wind turbines for the Comber wind energy project in Ontario (Canada) and of 44 of its 2.3 MW wind turbines for the Kennan wind farm project in Oklahoma (US).
During the same quarter Siemens also signed an inshore framework agreement with Samsung C&T.
Going forward, Löscher said the company intends to significantly expand its environmental portfolio, including renewable energy, environmental technology and energy efficiency.
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