Peter Loescher, Siemens president and CEO, discusses the company’s 1Q 2013 financials in this www.seekingalpha.com transcript. Said Loescher, “In a nutshell, our start into the new fiscal year and towards our Siemens 2014 target was solid in a still difficult macroeconomic environment despite the clear stabilization in the financial markets in Eurozone.
“The recession in a number of countries continues and leads to an overall subdued investment climate. The U.S. economy has stabilized, yet the ongoing discussions about rising the debt ceiling and pending decisions about budget cuts results in a certain reluctance to invest. In China, we see some areas pointing to an economic uptick, yet the situation remains incoherent.
“We continue to expect the recovery in demand for the second half of calendar 2013. In this environment, our order intake decreased by 5%. This was mainly due to an unexpected slowdown in the Industry sector as a result of a consolidation in the U.S. and Germany on high level and still difficult conditions in China.”