Losses at Nordex Group during the first nine months of the year widened, but the wind turbine OEM was able to increase its sales and boost both order and production figures, pointing to a possible turnaround of results in the near future.
“The Nordex Group’s business is performing in line with our expectations in 2019, with a significantly stronger second half of the year,” chief executive José Luis Blanco said.
“Demand for our new Delta4000 product range remains very strong. It is now important for us to process a high number of projects efficiently while at the same time pushing ahead with the transformation of our supply chain.”
Consolidated sales rose to €1.94bn ($2.13bn) in the nine-month period, up from €1.77bn a year earlier. Gross revenue – which also includes services provided but not yet shown as sales, such as turbines manufactured – even jumped by 43.7% to €2.52bn in the period.
Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda), however, fell to €60.2m, from €71.4m a year earlier, and the group’s net loss widened to €76.5m from a loss of €51.8m in the first nine months of 2018.
Net debt also jumped, to €200.9m, from €32.5m in the year-earlier period.
On the upside, production surged, with 3.1GW in turbines being assembled during the first nine months of 2019, compared to 1.7GW in the same period of 2018. Blade production also jumped, to 1.1GW, from 648MW a year earlier.
Nordex last month had already made public that its third quarter 2019 wind turbine orders had soared to 1.7GW from 974MW in the same quarter a year earlier, boding well for a recovery next year.
Orders also kept pouring in during the fourth quarter.
The manufacturer said it has received three orders with a combined capacity of 248MW from Turkey.
One is for 21 of its N149/4.0-4.5 turbines with a rated capacity of 4.8 MW each for the 110.8MW Ömerli wind farm near Istanbul. The second, also by long-standing customer Boydak Enerji, is for an additional 22 N117/3675 machines for the 80.9MW Sibel project between Izmir and Manisa.
An undisclosed utility has ordered a further 14 N149/4.0-4.5 turbines with a rated capacity of 4.8 MW for a 67MW wind farm in the Marmara region.
UPDATES with Turkish orders
