Offshore wind turbine-maker MHI Vestas has signed a supply deal for blade materials with Taiwanese chemical group Swancor.

The agreement “goes significantly beyond” local content requirements for MHI Vestas’s own Taiwan supply chain, and opens the potential for Swancor to supply the OEM’s global operations, said a statement.

The conditional agreement is MHI Vestas’s second such deal in Taiwan after a tower contract signed last October. In early 2018 the Danish-Japanese OEM was named preferred supplier of up to 1.5GW of turbines for a trio of wind farms being jointly developed by Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) and China Steel Corporation (CSC) in the Chuanghua area off Taiwan

Lars Bondo Krogsgaard, MHI Vestas Co-CEO, said:“With local production of blade materials now confirmed, with the potential for global supply, we will continue to advance our localisation agenda to ensure that we are ready to deliver on our first projects in the market.”

News of the supply deal comes soon after Swancor unveiled plans to step back from project development via the sale of its New Energy unit and focus on growing its role as a materials specialist in the offshore wind supply chain.

Swancor is considering a joint venture with Formosa Plastics Corporation to set up a carbon fibre production base in Taiwan. “The joint venture looks to become the first hub in Asia to provide wind turbine blade materials for MHI Vestas globally,” said Swancor chairman Robert Tsai.