Siemens says it is looking to give its Large Drives Applications (LDA) business additional entrepreneurial freedom so that it can focus more sharply on its markets and customers, ultimately to the benefit of all stakeholders. Specifically, Siemens AG spokesman Wolfram Trost told IM: “LDA is one of the leading suppliers in the market, in a strong position overall, and has performed very well over the past months, with an innovative portfolio and excellent customer relations. More entrepreneurial freedom as a Siemens Portfolio Company has been a key driver to this. Siemens is well aware of this, and that’s why we will continue to strengthen and improve LDA’s position. To this end, we have decided to carve-out LDA’s activities in separate legal entities.”
Trost added: “The Portfolio Companies of Siemens AG, including Siemens Large Drives Applications (LDA), continuously optimise their businesses, aiming to achieve profitable growth and to find the optimal set-up. Since the start of the Siemens Portfolio Companies in April 2019, we have always communicated that we continuously evaluate optimisations for each business.”
Siemens LDA covers a huge range of solutions but broadly it engineers and produces heavy-duty electrical drive systems for medium and high voltage ranges: electrical motors, converters and generators, as well as special large drives for ships, mines and rolling mills. LDA occupies a very important position in mining – specifically with respect to large gearless and geared drives used for powering large grinding mills and increasingly large overland conveyors at many of the world’s leading high throughput operations.
LDA Minerals Solutions comprises the specific mining portfolio which mainly comes under the SIMINE brand. It consists of the gearless drives, which aside from mills and conveyors can be applied in draglines. It also includes large geared pinion drives for mills, as well as AC drives for shovels and mine winders. Finally, it includes the Siemens AC drives for mining trucks. In the bigger picture, LDA Minerals Solutions takes a comprehensive view of mining electrification and covers all aspects from generation to utility infeed, through medium-voltage distribution, to end use. The comprehensive solutions portfolio focuses on automation and digitalisation for excellence and sustainability in the minerals industry.
