Danish wind turbine manufacturer Vestas has reported larger than expected first half losses, despite the surging oil price resulting in a boom of orders.
With a global market share of around 30%, the company announced its January-June net sales increased almost 50% year on year to €1.39 billion but the company reported a loss of €105 million over the same period. The high level of activity has an impact on the wind power industry in general. This has generated capacity problems for a number of Vestas’ most important component suppliers who at the moment are not capable of delivering key components in the quantity and quality required.
First-half deliveries to Australia, India and Italy increased but declined to Germany, Spain and Britain. Nonetheless, deliveries to the USA, Germany and the UK offshore market are expected to increase significantly during the second half.
Based on the positive market development, Vestas has increased the expectations for the full-year turnover by approximately 8% to the range from €3.2 to €3.4 billion but says that the uncertainty regarding the expectations for turnover and result for 2005 has increased considerably. This is partly due to the sub-suppliers’ present delivery situation and partly due to the logistic challenges related to the contracted project supplies at the end of 2005.
Vestas shares lost about 5% in the wake of the announcement.
