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General Electric to cut 12,000 jobs in power business revamp

reuters.com

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Re: General Electric to cut 12,000 jobs in power business revamp

#21

Post by AnimalMuppet »

idoh wrote: post #20
ggm wrote: post #18

The last sentence says it all. Its not that there is no market for GE's type of skills, its that there are competitors from other places. That includes people located in the primary growth market footprint, of Asia. So GE would be competing with European and North american salary and cost models, against people every bit as good (and they are) but from a different cost model, and even if you equalize for that the asi…

What does IPR, ARUP, and coltan mean?

Coltan: Columbite-tantalite, an ore that contains niobium and tantalum.

IPR: Intellectual property rights.

ARUP: I presume the Arup Group, as Wikipedia says: "a multinational professional services firm headquartered in London which provides engineering, design, planning, project management and consulting services for all aspects of the built environment."

Re: General Electric to cut 12,000 jobs in power business revamp

#22

Post by macandcheese »

ggm wrote: post #18

The last sentence says it all. Its not that there is no market for GE's type of skills, its that there are competitors from other places. That includes people located in the primary growth market footprint, of Asia. So GE would be competing with European and North american salary and cost models, against people every bit as good (and they are) but from a different cost model, and even if you equalize for that the asi…

Great read on China's influence in Africa:

https://www.amazon.com/Dragons-Gift-Story-China-Africa/dp/01...

Re: General Electric to cut 12,000 jobs in power business revamp

#23

Post by pascalxus »

ggm wrote: post #18

The last sentence says it all. Its not that there is no market for GE's type of skills, its that there are competitors from other places. That includes people located in the primary growth market footprint, of Asia. So GE would be competing with European and North american salary and cost models, against people every bit as good (and they are) but from a different cost model, and even if you equalize for that the asi…

>>Competitors from other countries.

And China has another huge advantage: NO income taxes. This means they can pay much lower wages. This advantage becomes multiplicative because those companies and employees can then buy from others in their country who don't pay income taxes either, so every dollar spent goes further, at least in their country.

Re: General Electric to cut 12,000 jobs in power business revamp

#24

Post by revelation »

sharpercoder wrote: post #16

Something has gone very wrong at the GE board. They invested $10B+ in 2015 in the power business, which they now axe. They just took over Baker Hughes (last June), which they now want to get rid of.

It's the power business, where every purchase is planned 30 years in advance. To cut 12000 jobs there is just gross mismanagement.

Re: General Electric to cut 12,000 jobs in power business revamp

#25

Post by cleansy »

pascalxus wrote: post #23
ggm wrote: post #18

The last sentence says it all. Its not that there is no market for GE's type of skills, its that there are competitors from other places. That includes people located in the primary growth market footprint, of Asia. So GE would be competing with European and North american salary and cost models, against people every bit as good (and they are) but from a different cost model, and even if you equalize for that the asi…

>>Competitors from other countries. And China has another huge advantage: NO income taxes. This means they can pay much lower wages. This advantage becomes multiplicative because those companies and employees can then buy from others in their country who don't pay income taxes either, so every dollar spent goes further, at least in their country.

Do you have a source for no income taxes? The sources I found state clearly that they have one. [1]

[1]: https://www.ecovis.com/focus-china/individual-income-tax-iit...

Re: General Electric to cut 12,000 jobs in power business revamp

#26

Post by iamthirsty »

cylinder wrote: post #19
sharpercoder wrote: post #16

Something has gone very wrong at the GE board. They invested $10B+ in 2015 in the power business, which they now axe. They just took over Baker Hughes (last June), which they now want to get rid of.

American culture. No long term planning or commitment. People are disposable. Following the latest fad, always.

I don't think it has anything to do specifically with "American culture". Plenty of American companies have long term planning and commitment.

Re: General Electric to cut 12,000 jobs in power business revamp

#27

Post by blattimwind »

andrewjl wrote: post #5

Why can't GM re-tool and redeploy those in steam and nuclear generation sectors to work on renewables? The coming wave of solar / wind deployments will be the largest power-related chunk of capex in a generation.

Thermal power plant translates to turbo sets (meaning a turbo generator, which is pretty much the most efficient electrical machine around at >99 %, coupled to a turbo steam turbine. Both run at 3000 rpm (a little more for 60 Hz instead of the more widely used 50 Hz) and are built to utilize the strength of all materials to a significant degree, their design and maintenance is really quite fascinating and requires quite a lot of know-how! - that is somewhat widely available nowadays, though)

Non-thermal renewables (wind, water, PV) have zero overlap with those techniques. Wind turbines are slow runners, as are water turbines. PV has no moving parts. Only STE is, or can be, a kind of thermal plant, just with a different steam generator.

Given the large unaccounted footprint ("Oh just look how low the carbon dioxide footprint is!") of PV production, STE is probably a rather good idea in comparison.

Re: General Electric to cut 12,000 jobs in power business revamp

#28

Post by beckler »

chroem- wrote: post #12
andrewjl wrote: post #5

Why can't GM re-tool and redeploy those in steam and nuclear generation sectors to work on renewables? The coming wave of solar / wind deployments will be the largest power-related chunk of capex in a generation.

Because renewables, like wind and solar, and thermal power generation are completely different technologies. There is very little in the way of transferrable knowledge and manufacturing tooling between the two.

Also the margins on renewables are quite thin due to competition and recent innovation in that space.

Re: General Electric to cut 12,000 jobs in power business revamp

#29

Post by stephen_g »

maxxxxx wrote: post #11
munk-a wrote: post #2

This coming within a week of them being handed a giant tax cut...

I don't understand how anyone thinks the tax cuts will have an impact on hiring or wages. Companies are already making record profits so if they had a need for hiring people they could afford it already. They also could afford to increase wages now if they saw a need. The tax cut money will probably go into stock buybacks or dividends.

Yes, to think that tax cuts would increase employment, you would need to first believe that companies hire people they don’t need for fun.

In reality, they will hire if increased demand for their goods or services requires more people to produce them.

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