Vestas suspends 2020 guidance
Turbine manufacturer Vestas announced it has suspended its financial guidance for the calendar year due to the disruptions caused by the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic.
It stated that despite emerging from the first quarter largely unscathed by the pandemic, the virus’ effects meant it could no longer confidently provide guidance for the full year.
The manufacturer had expected revenue of €14-15 billion, an Ebit margin before special items of 7-9% and total investments of about €700 million in 2020.
WindEurope warns of financial uncertainty
Short-term uncertainty created by the pandemic will prompt lenders to focus on managing liquidity rather than providing capital for financing wind farms, WindEurope warned.
The industry body added that the depth of the economic fall-out from the pandemic will determine how quickly markets return to some sort of normality.
Indian installations face delays
Installation of up to 400MW of Indian wind farms could be delayed into 2021 due to supply and labour disruptions, analysts at Wood Mackenzie warned.
Before the outbreak of the virus - and India’s nationwide lockdown - the analysts had predicted 3.5GW of projects being commissioned this year, but they have now revised their forecast down 11.4% to 3.1GW.
Wood Mackenzie’s senior analyst Rishab Shrestha warned there could be lingering supply and logistics bottlenecks continuing into the second half of the year.
TPI reduces production levels
Blade manufacturer TPI Composites has reduced production levels at some of its plants in India, Turkey and Mexico to prevent spread of the virus.
It added that the decision to reduce output at some of its plants was partly due to pressure from workers’ unions.
How long the reductions and suspensions of production last depends on whether government-mandated stay-at-home orders are extended, TPI added.
Deme hires hotel ship
Deme Group has hired a ‘hotel ship’ on which to quarantine crews due to replace workers at the marine engineers’ dredging and offshore vessels.
Crews will be quarantined on the ship, moored off Ostend, Belgium, for two weeks to stop transmission of the virus. An onboard medic will monitor workers’ temperatures.
Employees returning home from sea will not be quarantined as they would not have been exposed to the virus, Deme explained.
For updates on how the coronavirus pandemic is impacting the wind power industry, please follow “uåX˜äŠÊ˜·³Ç’s blog.
.png)
.png)
