Siemens to axe 4,500 jobs worldwide

Announcement is in addition to 7,800 global job cuts set out in February

Industrial giant Siemens is axing 4,500 jobs worldwide as part of a fresh wave of cost-cutting.

The German-based conglomerate employed more than 341,000 people at the end of last year in more than 200 countries, including nearly 14,000 in the UK.

Siemens said that 2,200 of the jobs to be cut would be in Germany. A spokesman declined to give a breakdown of where the rest would be.

Today's announcement is in addition to 7,800 global job cuts set out in February.

Siemens has sites around the UK including a factory in Congleton, Cheshire, producing motor drives for a variety of applications from baggage handling systems to rollercoasters and which last year employed more than 500 people.

Another part of the business based in Oxfordshire produces superconducting magnets used in more than a third of all MRI body scanners installed in hospitals worldwide.

Last year Siemens announced it would invest 390 million euros (£290 million) in building a major offshore wind power manufacturing site in Hull.

Today, the global group said it was taking steps to improve profitability at its power generation businesses "as well as a bundle of additional measures for restructuring chronically low-profit businesses".

Chief executive Joe Kaeser said: "With the initiation of these measures, the company's structural reorganisation has been completed for the most part."

It comes as Siemens announced net income of 3.9 billion euros (£2.9 billion) for the quarter to the end of March.