WaterTreatmentChina.com

MUNICH, GERMANY — Siemens Water Technologies says it is planning to reorganize its worldwide business into four segments: industry, municipal, chemical feed and services, an April 2 Siemens press release said.

The change will organize 28 existing Siemens Water Technologies business units into specific markets and target groups, the company said. Joergen Ole Haslestad, CEO of the Siemens Industry Solutions Division that includes Siemens Water Technologies, said in the release, “By integrating our business in this way, we will lay the foundations for further growth in water business and expansion of our position in the market.”

Siemens took a big step into the water treatment business in 2004 when it purchased the former USFilter company from Veolia Environnement. Siemens eventually integrated all of its USFilter business into what is now Siemens Water Technologies. Since 2004, Siemens has also acquired a number of other companies involved in water and wastewater treatment technologies.

Haslestad wants to “tighten up the way in which the segments are run, in addition to having a stronger orientation to the market and focusing on target groups,” the release quoted him as saying. Regarding USFilter, he said, “We will structure the complex business taken over from USFilter more clearly and make it more effective by centralizing processes and standardizing the portfolio.” He was referring to the fact that the USFilter part of the business has encompassed a number of product/system brands and market orientations.

Siemens Water Technologies, based in Warrendale, PA, and a division of Germany-based technology giant Siemens AG, now has worldwide revenues of $3.1 billion (about 2 billion euros), and about one-third of its business is now conducted outside the United States, according to the company.

Haslestad said in the release he expects further growth coming from expansion of Siemens Water Technologies’ global service business, in which partnerships involve all phases from equipment installation through modernization and capacity expansion. In each of the four new business segments, “There will be a direct connection between technology [products and systems] and service offerings,” the company said.

Each of the three new industry-specific segments will encompass products, solutions and aftermarket services in these sectors:

● Industry: process water, wastewater, recycling and reuse, and waste-to-energy in the biopharmaceutical, chemical, food, microelectronics, oil and gas, power, open-cast mining, and iron and steel industries.

● Municipal: drinking water, wastewater, reuse, and automation of sewage plants and pipeline networks.

● Chemical feed: disinfection for industry and communities.

Haslestad said another key goal of Siemens Water Technologies is to continue growing “more quickly than the market,” which he said now is expanding at a 6 percent annual rate worldwide. He noted that growth potential in China and India is double the global average. Siemens Water Technologies’ has new bases in Singapore for Asia and in Dubai and Abu Dhabi for the Middle East, and the company also aims to accelerate regional growth in Europe.