When Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, many Western companies shuttered their stores in Russia or paused their sales in the country. Some — like Starbucks, which made the announcement earlier this week — are leaving Russia for good.
A number of HVAC manufacturers early on joined the international effort to pressure Russia via economic sanctions, including Carrier, The Chemours Co., Johnson Controls, The Rehau Group, Siemens, and Trane. Three months later, two have decided to quit the country completely.
Manufacturing giant Siemens announced on May 12 that it will exit Russia as a result of the Ukraine war, leaving a market where it has been active for almost 170 years. The German multinational conglomerate corporation is the largest industrial manufacturing company in Europe. After the start of the war, Siemens put all new business in and international deliveries to Russia and Belarus on hold. Now the company “has started proceedings to wind down its industrial operations and all industrial business activities,” according to a press release.
Roland Busch, president and CEO of Siemens AG, said in a statement that the decision to pull out of Russia was not an easy one because of employees and long-standing customer relationships in the country.
“We condemn the war in Ukraine and have decided to carry out an orderly process to wind down our industrial business activities in Russia,” he said. “We are evaluating the impact on our people, and we will continue to support them to the best of our abilities. At the same time, we provide humanitarian assistance to our colleagues and the people of Ukraine and stand with the international community in calling for peace.”
In Siemens’ second-quarter results disclosure, Siemens said that international sanctions, “as well as current and potential countermeasures,” had impacted its business in Russia. The company’s Q2 profit took a €0.6 billion hit — mainly to its Mobility business, which deals largely in rail transportation — due to sanctions.
Rehau, which in March announced it was ramping down its business in Russia “in a controlled manner,” is now withdrawing completely from the country as well.
“The development of the past weeks has made further decisions unavoidable,” Rehau stated in a press release dated May 25.
Rehau has been active in Russia for around 30 years and has served the market there primarily with polymer-based solutions for the window, construction, and furniture sectors. Its business in Russia will be sold to local management, and a corresponding preliminary agreement has already been signed.
