Vestas, Big sales more losses in the wind farm business

Vestas, the world's largest producer of wind turbines, lost nearly DKK 1.2bn (EUR 116m) on sales of DKK 26.7bn (EUR 3.58bn)last year up 52% on the previous year. The company's board called the loss 'disappointing' and 'totally unacceptable'.

Three factors had helped cause the losses last year: disappointing North American earnings, a lack of components, and vastly increased guarantee provisions.

Vestas expected better financial results in 2006. The company has already secured 60 percent of its projected earnings of DKK 28bn (EUR 3.7bn) through long-term orders.

It also predicted a growing market for wind energy in the coming years and maintained its 2008 goal of a 10 percent operating margins.

Vestas shares rose 11.25 dkr to 155, extending yesterday's more than 8 pct surge. JP Morgan upgraded to 'neutral' from 'underperform' on a reduced risk outlook after yesterday's full-year report, with the announced share capital increase of 10.3 mln shares being much smaller-than-feared. Vestas also announced winning 3 orders in China for the delivery of a total of 280 V52-850 kW wind turbines.

Asia Wind Power (Mudanjiang) Co. Ltd. and Hong Kong Wind Power (Muling) Co. Ltd. - both subsidiaries of Hong Kong Construction (Holdings) Limited - have placed an order for two wind power plants located in Muling in the Heilongjiang Province for a total of 58 turbines.

Gansu Datang Yumen Wind Power Co. Ltd, which is a subsidiary of China Datang Corporation, has placed an order for 58 turbines for the Yumen Diwopu project.

Datang Chifeng Saihanba Wind Power Generation Co. Ltd, which is also a subsidiary of China Datang Corporation, has placed an order for a total of 164 turbines which will be the largest wind power plant in China.The plant will be located in Chifeng, in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

All 3 orders include supply and commissioning of the turbines as well as Vestas Online remote monitoring systems for each site. Delivery of the turbines will begin in the spring of 2006, and installation is expected to be completed during the second half of 2006.

An order was recently obtained from the Spanish wind farm developer, Generaciones Especiales I, S.L. (GENESA). GENESA belongs to Neo Energía, which is HC Energía and Edp’s new company for development of renewable energy for the Neo Energía Group. The order is for a total of 39 units of the V90-1.8 MW wind turbine for two wind power projects in Spain, Munera I and Munera II at Albacete, the third in the region of Castilla La Mancha which is the second largest region in Spain in terms of MW installed..

An order for a total of 55.5 MW for the Italian market has been received from Italian Vento Power Corporation (IVPC) for three turnkey wind power plants. Two on Sicily and one in the Puglia region. In total, the order consists of 30 units of the V52-850 kW turbine and 15 units of the V80-2.0 MW turbine. All three wind power plants are expected to be fully commissioned by the end of 2006.

For previous post on Vestas go here http://postmanpatel.blogspot.com/2005/11/more-problems-with-wind.html
http://postmanpatel.blogspot.com/2005/11/wind-energy-more-problems-losses-stack.html