Siemens CFO says political uncertainties weighing on customers' decisions

By John Revill

ZURICH, March 19 (Reuters) - Siemens SIEGn.DE is seeing some hesitancy among customers due to political uncertainties, Chief Financial Officer Ralf Thomas said on Wednesday, although he does not expect the situation to last.

Companies concerned about the impact of tariffs and whether ESG - environmental, social and governance risks - will remain important after being attacked by President Donald Trump, is leading to delays on investments decisions, Thomas said.

"Whenever there is uncertainty on the political side, that translates into a kind of paralysis for decisions makers," Thomas told a Bank of America conference in London.

"We see that in a broad space at the moment, not only restricted to the U.S. but also other geographies and the tensions related to the political environment," he added. "They will definitely not accelerate decision making processes any time soon."

Still, Siemens said long-term demand for its products "seemed to be ok", Thomas said, while the company also had a big order backlog of 118 billion euros ($129 billion) to work through.

Thomas said if the uncertainty did last for one or two quarters, that would be "different ball game," although he did not expect that to happen.

As a result, Siemens did not see any impact on its full year outlook, with the company saying in February it expected revenue growth of 3% to 7% this year.

Thomas also confirmed the company's guidance for each of its divisions for the second quarter, which runs to the end of March.

Siemens has been wrestling with weak demand in some countries, such as Germany and China, and on Tuesday announced it was cutting 8% of the jobs at its industrial automation business to match production to lower sales.

Thomas said industrial demand in China, Siemens' third biggest market, was now normalising, helped by the success of its electric car makers.

Siemens had also continued to sell down its stake in Siemens Energy ENR1n.DE, Thomas said, and now held roughly 12% in the company, down from 14.3% at the end of 2024.

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