General Electric Co. Will Cut 6000 Jobs in Europe

General Electric Co is planning to cut 6000 jobs in Europe, due to decreasing demand for gas and steam turbines in the region as it integrates Alstom SA’s energy units into its operations.

The cuts include 765 positions in France and 1,700 in Germany, Renaud Petitjean, a GE spokesman in Paris, said on Wednesday. The layoffs represent about 14 percent of the 48,000 people that GE’s Power and Water division employs in Europe after the Alstom acquisition, he said.

GE sealed its 8.5-billion-euro ($9.2 billion) acquisition of Alstom’s energy businesses in November. The move expands Fairfield, Connecticut-based company’s grip on the lucrative business of servicing and maintaining gas turbines, while adding joint ventures in renewable energy and electrical transmission businesses. The company promised to create a net new 1,000 jobs in France to win government support for the deal.

“Any potential job that will be impacted in France will have to be replaced at the end of the period,” Petitjean said. “These positions, if we cancel them, will have to be recreated in addition to the 1,000 we promised to create.”

Germany’s shift to renewable energy has made white elephants of coal and gas plants in Europe’s largest economy, sapping demand for new generators, which can cost tens of millions of euros to buy. The contract to maintain a single gas turbine can meanwhile be worth as much as 30 million euros over the course of a decade. Access to this installed base, rather than its manufacturing capacity, may have been the primary motivation for GE’s acquisition of the Alstom assets, analysts have said.