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Vestas cuts 2,335 jobs, more at risk in U.S. 

Credit:  By Alex Morales, Bloomberg, www.bloomberg.com 12 January 2012 ~~

Vestas Wind Systems A/S (VWS), the world’s biggest wind turbine maker, said it will halt production at one factory and cut 2,335 jobs amounting to 10 percent of its staff as it tries to become more competitive with Chinese suppliers.

The changes are aimed at saving more than 150 million euros ($191 million) by the end of 2012, the company based in Aarhus, Denmark, said in a statement today. Vestas said another 1,600 posts in the U.S. are at risk as a tax credit supporting the industry expires at year-end.

Chief Executive Officer Ditlev Engel keeps his post after cutting sales forecasts twice since October. Three times in the past three years he’s pared staff as Sinovel Wind Group (SINOVZ) Co. and Xinjiang Goldwind Science & Technology Co. grabbed market share. Vestas also suffered from a delay in ramping up production at a generator factory and from downward pressure on turbine prices.

“The challenges we have faced in the fourth quarter of 2011 have given us a credibility problem,” Engel said in the statement. “I can certainly understand if employees as well as people outside Vestas consider us to be in a state of crisis.”

Vestas fell 4.5 percent to 60.15 kroner as of 12:30 p.m. in Copenhagen, the most since Jan. 4, the day after the last profit warning. The stock has lost more than 90 percent of its value since peaking at 692 kroner in 2008.

“Perhaps some investors had expected change in management or in the board of directors,” Jacob Pedersen, an analyst at Sydbank A/S (SYDB) who correctly predicted the scale of the cuts said today in a phone interview from Aabenraa, Denmark. “Vestas disappointed massively by the downgrade they made” on Jan. 3.

‘Tremendous Setback’

At a press conference today in Copenhagen with European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt called the job losses an “enormous setback” to European Union efforts to promote green growth.

“This is a very, very sad day for Denmark as this is one of the things we think Denmark should be doing in the future,” Thorning-Schmidt said. “I still think this is the way forward, investing in new ways of doing things and new technologies, and despite this enormous setback we’re on the right path.”

Engel’s Team

Engel, 47, also announced changes to its management, promoting Chief Financial Officer Henrik Norremark to chief operating officer and deputy chief executive officer, and starting a search for a new finance director. Vestas will organize its business into five divisions and form a six-member executive team including Engel and Norremark, who will remain acting CFO until a replacement is found.

Those leaving the management team include Ander Soe-Jensen, the head of offshore wind; Bjarne Ravn Soerensen, president of control systems; Finn Stroem Madsen, head of technology research and development; and Peter Kruse, head of communications.

Juan Araluce becomes chief sales officer and Anders Vedel will be in charge of turbines. The new CFO and a new person to head up a services division will complete the team, which comes into place on Feb. 1.

“We believe replacing the CFO to be a wise move,” Rupesh Madlani, an analyst in London at Barclays Capital said in a note to investors. “The market had been disappointed over the last year at the lack of financial details and two profit warnings in a quarter from the company. We therefore view this change to be particularly positive.”

Vestas slashed 3,000 jobs in October 2010, and 1,900 in April 2009. After the latest round of cuts, its workforce will number about 20,400.

U.S. Jobs

A total of 1,749 of the posts to be lost will be in Europe, with 1,300 of those in Denmark, according to the statement.

“The redundancies are happening in an industry which ought to experience progress due to the massive climate problems that both Denmark and the world are facing,” Frida Frost, chairwoman of the Danish Society of Engineers, which has about 550 Vestas members, said in an e-mail. “We risk that knowledge and know- how about wind technology now disappears, and that is not what Denmark needs in the current economic situation.”

In the U.S., 182 workers will lose their posts, with 404 job losses in China and the rest of the world. Vestas will stop producing at its tower factory in Varde, western Denmark, it said.

‘Highest Costs’

“Vestas has one of the highest costs of all its peers and will therefore have to take these painful steps in order to remain profitable in the future,” Justin Wu, a Hong Kong-based analyst with Bloomberg New Energy Finance, said in an e-mail. “Turbine manufacturing margins have plummeted while competition has become increasingly fierce.”

In the U.S., a further 1,600 jobs may be cut later this year if lawmakers don’t extend the so-called production tax credit, Vestas said. The credit gives an incentive of 2.2 cents a kilowatt-hour of wind power.

“The expected layoffs are one of many steps that we now take in order to bring down costs,” Engel said. The changes are necessary “in order to prepare for a market with low growth and increased competition.”

Vestas has spent more than $1 billion building four plants in Colorado. About 900 work at plants making nacelles and blades in Brighton, Colorado. The company has hired almost 700 people in the U.S. and Canada in the past eight months. Vestas said it will decide about the size of the U.S. staff later this year.

“We are now preparing Vestas for the situation where one of our largest single markets, the U.S.A., may be facing a tough 2013,” Engel said. “This will have a huge impact on our business if we do not act now.”

Source:  By Alex Morales, Bloomberg, www.bloomberg.com 12 January 2012

This article is the work of the source indicated. Any opinions expressed in it are not necessarily those of National Wind Watch.

The copyright of this article resides with the author or publisher indicated. As part of its noncommercial educational effort to present the environmental, social, scientific, and economic issues of large-scale wind power development to a global audience seeking such information, National Wind Watch endeavors to observe “fair use” as provided for in section 107 of U.S. Copyright Law and similar “fair dealing” provisions of the copyright laws of other nations. Send requests to excerpt, general inquiries, and comments via e-mail.

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