“Siemens AG announced a plan to adapt the organisation to the global market situation. No significant impact on Siemens Portugal’s operations is expected,” an official source from Siemens Portugal said in response to Lusa.

According to information released by the German technology and industrial group Siemens, the cut of 6,000 jobs will mainly affect the digitalisation division of factories and is justified by the need to adjust production capacity to the drop in demand.

Of that total, almost half (2,850) correspond to job cuts in Germany, with the reduction being made through voluntary departures and not layoffs.

“The drop in demand, mainly in the Chinese and German markets, combined with increased competitive pressure, has significantly reduced orders and revenues in the industrial automation sector,” the German group said in a statement.

The same official source noted that in Portugal the Siemens Group “continues to strengthen its teams in most of the areas in which it operates”, having recruited around 80 additional workers “in the first five months of the current business year”, currently having more than 4,170 direct workers.