Siemens Gamesa (www.gamesacorp.com) said last week that it plans to cut as many as 6,000 jobs world-wide, as it expects sales to plunge by as much as a fifth next year. The job cuts would amount to more than 20% of the company’s workforce of around 26,000.

Wind turbine manufacturers have been facing growing competition, and the Spain-based joint venture has cut its earnings forecasts twice in recent months.

Siemens merged its wind-power division with rival Gamesa this year, following deals that saw Germany’s Nordex buy the turbine division of Spain’s Acciona and General Electric take over France’s Alstom Energy.

A spokesman for Siemens said: “We believe that the planned restructuring measures at Siemens Gamesa are necessary, because the market and regulatory environments are changing structurally.”