Siemens shaken by the global supply chain “roller coaster”

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The head of Siemens, the largest industrial manufacturer in Europe, has compared global supply chains with a “roller coaster” as prices for materials such as metals and resins plummeted due to an economic upturn uneven.

“At least for the next two quarters, we’ll see [price] pressure, “executive director Roland Busch told the Financial Times.” Markets are so volatile. ”

The physicist, who took over at the head of the German group in February, said the speed of the global recovery was having a “delayed effect” on Siemens suppliers, who were still struggling to meet demand.

The sudden rise in orders last fall, as a result of a sharp fall induced by a pandemic, resembled “a very strong V. . . in China it was a very, very sharp V, ”Busch said.

“If this happens in big markets, you have a roller coaster in your supply chain. . . you have this hysteresis effect, and that’s exactly what we’re seeing. “

Busch’s comments were the most recent purchasing managers index, published on Wednesday by IHS Markit, showed that disruption to global supply chains – in particular the shortage of steel, copper, wood and plastics – had raised entry prices for eurozone companies in the faster pace for more than a decade.

PMI data, which includes the largest increase in average prices for goods and services since 2002, indicates that pressures are likely to continue after May inflation exceeds the European Central Bank’s target of just under 2% to first time since 2018.

However, central bankers such as ECB President Christine Lagarde predicted that the rise in inflation would be “transitory” and said supply constraints would fade away by next year.

In the June PMI report, there were the first signs that restrictions could ease in Germany after a “slight drop in the number of companies reporting longer delivery times on materials and components.”

Siemens busch said that at the moment, the group was able to pass on price increases for materials to its customers, without losing business.

“Our competitors are sitting on the same boat and buying from the same suppliers,” he said. “Whenever we have innovative products, we also have a certain pricing power.”

Siemens, which has undergone a profound restructuring and has decoupled its health and energy businesses, is preparing to announce the next step in its transformation from a conglomerate to a more focused group of companies, complemented by software experience. .

“Our customers benefit from our ability to combine the real world and the digital,” Busch said.

The group’s core businesses, which focus on automating and digitizing factories, operating buildings and power grids, and building trains and infrastructure, would pursue acquisitions in “very attractive adjacent markets,” he added.

Busch cited the recent purchase of Californian company Supplyframe, an online marketplace for electronic components, for $ 700 million, as an example of the kind of acquisitions Siemens would look to make in the future.

Siemens said it expected its software revenue, which would stand at 5.3 billion euros by 2020, to grow at a compound annual rate of approximately 10% over the next four years.

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