Siemens Energy (NYSE:SI) Closing Plant in Canada - 550 Jobs Will be Lost

Charlotte, North Carolina will be the beneficiaries of a new push by Siemens Energy (NYSE:SI) to expand its operations in gas turbines, as they will plow $170 million into the expansion of a gas manufacturing facility, creating 825 new jobs in the area over the next five years.

The purpose of the expansion will be to create a global production hub for the company, which evidently the location in Canada isn't conducive to.

It'll take about 15 months to transition from the Canadian plant, whereby at that time it'll be completely shut down. Reports are the company has offered about 60 existing the opportunity to relocate to North Carolina if they choose to.

Workers at its Orlando facility will also be effected, as close to 50 positions there will be transferred to the Charlotte area as well, in order to consolidate the operations.

Some of the reasoning about the move related to products made at the Canadian facility, which included about 75 percent of them being exported to the American market, making it beneficial to migrate the operations to the United States.

The jobs being created in the area will pay an average of $25.50, while workers on salary will be paid about $70,000 a year on average. This is why it's quite a blow to the Canadian facility, which offered such solid jobs to their people.

In the first part of the expansion, there will be a hiring of around 660 workers during the expenditure of the first $135 million, bringing the overall total to close to 1,800 employees at the North Carolina plant.