Siemens thinks on the sale of Mull Metals Technologies

Siemens AG is considering selling its VAI Metals Technologies, the largest engineering company in Europe, as said by the chief executive director of Joe Kaiser.

The unit with 7000 staff is developing, building and serving installations for the steel industry, including engine frequency converter . The object based in linz in Austria, according to experts, has somewhat reduced profitability. Sale can be carried out in the first half of 2014, they said.

The company purchased from Voestalpine AG in 2005 can be estimated at 800 million euros ($ 1.1 billion), in accordance with the assessment of September 7 by Societe Generale SA analysts. The Munich Siemens, which has Danieli Spa and SMS of Germany, Holding GmbH in Italy, among its competitors in the segment does not exceed VAI profit indicators.

The post of General Director Joe Kaiser has been occupied in August and has since been working in the direction of a planned update of the company's strategy through the Siemens portfolio next year. This is due to the fact that world prices for steel fell against the backdrop of decreasing demand from automakers and builders, and competition from cheaper manufacturers in China intensified.

Albrecht Neumann, who took the post of head of Siemens Vai Metals Technologies in November, said in an interview that the sale of a business is not on the agenda. He stated that his priority is "making metals technologies competitive again."