A Westinghouse-designed gas turbine has been manufactured at the Siemens KWU Gas Turbine Development and Manufacturing Centre in Berlin. This is the first since the 1998 Siemens takeover of Westinghouse fossil power generation. There are a further 99 turbines on order and plans are for August to see the beginning of the manufacture of complete W501 turbines in Berlin to meet the huge US demand.
This demand is prompting both Siemens and GE to actively seek further acquisitions to increase turbine production and, in particular, plant service operations. According to Datamonitor, 1999 orders for fossil-fired generation reached 115.5 GWe, compared with 100 GWe in 1998. This trend is expected to see further increases this year and both companies hope to expand the proportion of service related revenues.
Datamonitor further reports that GE held the majority of orders with 32 per cent, Siemens came in second with 20 per cent of the market and Alstom of France came in next with 17 per cent of the global market share. Some 50 per cent of the orders were destined for the US and world sales of equipment and related construction came to $30 – $40 billion in 1999. Service contracts added a further $25 billion to this figure.
