OLEAN, N.Y. — As work continues to wind down at the former Dresser-Rand facility in Wellsville, the Siemens-owned Dresser-Rand operation in Olean continues to see high work loads.
The facility in Wellsville, under the control of Curtiss-Wright since 2018, is on schedule to close early in the new year, said Craig Clark, executive director of the Allegany County Industrial Development Agency.
“The major part of production will be closing down in the spring,” Clark said.
Some of the roughly 250 workers at the facility will continue employment locally. As many as 50 Curtiss-Wright employees will be housed in a new location in the area, while others are to be under the Siemens umbrella.
“Some of the engineering and support staff will be moving to Olean,” Clark said, with others set to telecommute. “They’re keeping their commitments to keep those people employed here.”
As of Sept. 30, around 20% — 76,000 — of the Siemens employees were employed in the Americas.
According to Siemens’ annual report issued Dec. 4, the company reported 22.1 billion euros — about $24.6 billion — in sales for the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, down from 28.19 billion euros the year before.
Siemens Gas and Power, which includes Dresser-Rand, saw revenue decrease 3% to 17.66 billion euros, while the adjusted earnings before interest, taxes and amortization came in 6% lower than in 2018, with a 3.8% adjusted EBITA margin.
However, the division saw 19.98 billion euros in new orders in 2019, up 7% from 2018.
“Oil and gas markets developed positively in fiscal 2019, driven by a recovery in liquefied natural gas,” the annual report states. “They are expected to grow again in fiscal 2020, driven by the liquefied natural gas and upstream markets. Both markets for offshore and onshore exploration are anticipated to recover further based on a growing number of expected project approvals. Pipelines, downstream, and oil and gas-related markets are expected to remain stable in fiscal 2020.”
That has equated to more work for the Olean facility, with the company continuing to recruit new workers through job postings. Along with staff transferred to Olean for engineering and support jobs from Wellsville, dozens of production workers who have been laid off in Wellsville have taken up employment in Olean, according to employees at the plant.
Workers report 10- and 12-hour shifts for some workers and projects scheduled into 2021 at the current time.
On the website www.jobs.siemens-info.com, there were 26 job postings listed for Olean as of Friday afternoon. Manufacturing jobs include sub assemblers, machine operators and supervisory roles. Engineering, finance, logistics and management positions are also posted.
Olean Mayor Bill Aiello said he is encouraged by the status of the manufacturer in the city.
“I’ve noticed they’re shipping again — the big trucks with equipment on them,” he said.
Aiello said he last spoke with management at the firm about a month ago.
“They said they were holding steady — and then I saw they were shipping again,” Aiello said. “Whenever you see that, that’s a good sign.”
Siemens officials did not answer requests for comment by press time.
In May, Siemens announced it was spinning off its oil and gas, conventional power generation, power transmission and connected services, aiming to have the company selling stock publicly by September 2020.
“The new company won’t have to compete for resources with higher margin business like smart infrastructure and digital industries,” Siemens Chief Executive Joe Kaeser told reporters in a conference call at the time. He also said that Siemens will continue to own a minority stake in the spin-off firm.
Clark Bros., founded in 1880 in Belmont to build pumps for the explosion in Southern Tier oil development, moved to Olean in 1912. The firm merged with Solomon R. Dresser Co. — originally of Bradford, Pa. — in 1938 to form Dresser-Clark, which was later Dresser Industries. Dresser-Rand was formed in 1986 in a joint venture with Ingersoll Rand, which owned a compressor manufacturing plant in Painted Post. Siemens, a Germany-based energy conglomerate, bought Dresser-Rand in 2015 for $7.8 billion.
(Contact City Editor Bob Clark at bclark@oleantimesherald.com. Follow him on Twitter, @OTHBob)
