Bucking the trend

It is not all gloom and doom on the financial front for engineering companies, especially for Vestas, a Danish developer of wind power systems.

The company continued to grow in 2008 and had its biggest fourth quarter ever – bringing in a revenue of €2,481m (£2,233m) compared to a revenue of €1,884m in the fourth quarter of 2007. Total revenue in 2008 rose to €6,035m from €4,861m in 2007.

The company claims that the growth in its profitability is expected to continue in 2009, but at a lower rate than during the last three years.

In 2008, Vestas shipped wind power systems with a capacity of 6,160MW and handed over wind turbines with a capacity of 5,580MW to its customers – an increase of 24 per cent each over 2007.

Despite the financial crisis, its order intake for the year increased by 406MW to 6,109MW. At the end of December 2008, this order backlog amounted to 4,806MW against 4,415MW at the end of 2007.

As a result of its success, Vestas plans to expand its production capacity in its principal markets. In Colorado, Vestas plans to build a nacelle factory, as well as double the capacity of its exisiting blade production line there to 4,000 blades by 2010.

In China, a factory in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia, will deliver its first kW turbines in the second quarter of 2009.