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Mitsubishi acquires metal producer Siemens VAI

Paul Gillingwater
Paul Gillingwater - [email protected]
Mitsubishi acquires metal producer Siemens VAI
Photo: APA

Austria's largest metal producer Siemens VAI was acquired by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Wednesday leaving thousands of staff uncertain about their futures. Siemens VAI, formerly Voest-Alpine Industrieanlagenbau, has subsidiaries in Germany, Great Britain, France, Italy and the USA.

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Mitsubishi Heavy Industries announced Wednesday that it has acquired a 51% stake in Siemens's subsidiary Siemens VAI (formerly Voest-Alpine Industrieanlagenbau).  

"Linz is [now] part of an overall unit," confirmed the chairman of the Employee Council, Gerhard Bayer to APA.  The head office will be relocated to the U.K. when the joint venture is established in January 2015.

The new company is expected to have 9,000 employees, which is the same approximate size as Siemens VAI at present, meaning a cloud of uncertainty has been cast over the future of many employees.

Details are still unclear, but it is thought that the jobs of 200 employees in Upper Austria may be in jeopardy. 

Bayer announced that employees would be joining a protest march in Linz over feared job losses. 

Rumours have been flying around since January of a possible sale of the unit, but attempts by the Employee Council to contact the Siemens Group Management in Munich have been consistently rebuffed.

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