A turnaround story, a sluggish U.S market, and a
surge in China cause a big shakeup in the ranks of wind turbine
manufacturers, as compiled by new analyst reports.
Vestas, the longtime number-one turbine maker which was dethroned in 2012 by GE,
has retaken the top spot with just over 13 percent market share.
Surging up the ranks for the No.2 spot in Make's list is China's
Goldwind (just over 10 percent), illustrating the big rebound in China's
wind market in 2012. Enercon (10 percent) and Siemens (8 percent) round
out the top five grouping. Rounding out the top 10 were GE and Gamesa
which slid to 6-7, followed by United Power, Minyang, and Nordex, just
eking out XEMC and Envision.
Similar new data from GlobalData
also puts Vestas on top, followed by Enercon, Goldwind, Siemens, and
Suzlon, with GE and Gamesa falling out of the top 5. A similar wind
energy market share update from Nagivant/BTM is due by the end of this
month to further fill out the picture
.
Top 5 wind turbine manufacturers, 2013 vs. 2012. Credit: GlobalData
Being back in the top spot is the culmination of a two-year turnaround at Vestas,
one in which the company shed 12 factories and nearly a third of its
workforce, but erased 900 million euros in debt and close to a billion
euros in annual losses. Business is so good in North America, in fact,
that the company plans to hire another 450 workers
in its Colorado factories to supply projects in the U.S. and Canada --
that's in addition to the 400 new workers it's been hiring there since
January. (These positions "are considered temporary with the opportunity
to be hired as regular Vestas employees," the company clarifies.)
Vestas says it has enough contracts in hand to project 2.6 GW of turbine
sales in the U.S. and Canada this year. "We are going to be extremely
busy making blades, nacelles and towers this year through at least
2015," stated Chris Brown, president of the company's domestic sales and
service division.
No comments:
Post a Comment