Vestas Wind Systems Prepares to Tackle the Long-Term Economic Impact of COVID-19

As the pandemic continues to spread, Vestas suspended its previous 2020 guidance outlook due to poor performance visibility for the remainder of the year. The company’s Q1 results indicate that the company is in line with expectations, and the company has assured that the proposed dividend for 2019 will not be affected by the decision of revising financial guidance.

Somik Das, Senior Power Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “The COVID-19 pandemic caused disruptions to the company’s manufacturing, supply chain, and installation plans. As a response to the total lockdown in Spain, it had to suspend production at both the plants in the country, which also forms a major hub for the continent’s renewables sector. Two other wind turbine manufacturers, Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy and General Electric Co’s unit LM Wind Power have also halted their operations at their factories in Spain owing to the pandemic.

Vestas, a global leader, is not facing the issues alone. Its top competitors Siemens Gamesa and Nordex have also shut down their manufacturing facilities in Spain, since the time the country became one of the worst-hit countries in the pandemic. In contrast to its rivals, Vestas is ensuring that its service and maintenance division is operational in the nation.

Das continues: “Vestas also temporarily stopped production at its blade factory and the hub and nacelle plant in India in response to the government-enforced lockdown. These are the leading companies in the wind sector globally, apart from Chinese manufacturers. What would be interesting to note that in the race to capitalize on the post-pandemic phase, which company would stand out? Definitely, with the halt in production, a large number of orders would face backlog. Thus if the Chinese manufacturers creep out of the pandemic before these companies, then it might be so that customers might run to them to fulfill their orders. This would then provide a huge boost to the Chinese manufacturers and the declining Chinese economy.”