A flurry of orders reported by Vestas just before the end of the third quarter of 2018 this past weekend bodes well for the Danish OEM’s business next year, but also underlines its stated shift towards markets outside Europe.

Among the orders were a 181MW order for the Global Power Generation’s Berrybank Wind Farm in Australia’s Victoria state, 502MW in North American orders, a 100MW order for a project in India’s Gujarat state, and a 225MW order in Argentina.

Vestas also scored in Europe, but orders there were smaller, such as a 12MW order for wind projects in Eastern Germany, a 59MW order from developer Wpd for a project on the west coast of Finland, and a 42MW order in north-eastern Sweden.

The strong order intake in the third quarter will from a solid foundation for 2019, said analyst Jacob Pedersen from Sydbank in Denmark, who maintains a ‘Buy’ recommendation for Vestas.

“We expect that the strong order intake will continue in the next quarters, and we raise our expectations for order intake this year to now 13GW (before 11.5GW),” Pedersen said in a note to investors.

In the third quarter of 2018, Vestas announced 2.67GW in orders, up 54% from the same period in 2017, the analyst says.

Following similar actions at other OEMs, Vestas on Friday had announced 400 job cuts, mostly in Denmark and Germany, as its focus shifts to high-growth wind markets outside Europe.

While wind additions are increasing in particularly the Americas and Asia, the core German market is in steep decline that according to Alex Robertson, vice president for sales for Germany, Austria and Switzerland at Vestas in an interview with Recharge last week is a “huge hit for the industry.”

Wind

Flurry of Vestas orders at end of Q3 bodes well for 2019 business