German wind turbine manufacturer Enercon has acknowledged that it suffered a “high-triple digit million” euro loss last year, amid a collapse of the German onshore wind market, increasing price pressure and the introduction of new turbine models.

The tight-lipped privately-owned company also said that its revenues in 2019 declined further, but didn’t specify how high the loss was exactly when prompted by Recharge.

Former chief financial officer Thomas Cobet, who resigned earlier this week, in December had told Recharge that the company faced a €500m ($597m) loss in 2019, which forced Enercon into restructuring talks.

Part of the reason for the loss last year had been costs for the repair of flawed hybrid turbine towers in the now discontinued EP4 series, an Enercon press official said. A total of 71 towers showed the formation of cracks, 54 of which have already been worked on.

Despite the extraordinary situation due to the technical problem that affected last year’s earnings, Enercon this year also expects a loss, which may be heightened by the economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, which had already pushed rivals such as Vestas and Siemens Gamesa into a loss.

Enercon stressed that it nevertheless still expects to achieve its turnaround to be completed in 2022. In June, the company had said it has secured long-term financing with its banks and its owner, the Aloys Wobben Stiftung, until the end of 2023.

As part of its ongoing restructuring, the turbine maker last week announced it will integrate previously external partners and stop working with outsourced production. Previous key manufacturing areas, such as rotor blade production, will only come from lower-cost production sites in countries such as Portugal or Turkey, as well as from external providers like GE’s LM Wind Power.

Wind

'High triple-digit million' euro loss at wind power OEM Enercon in 2019