Global turbine pricing is stable or even increasing in some markets, said research group Wood Mackenzie as it named Vestas the big winner of a record order bonanza at the end of last year.

Vestas pulled in 5.5GW of firm onshore orders in Q4 2018 out of a total of almost 18GW booked globally – the latter figure representing a 22% year-on-year rise and a 5.7GW increase on the previous fourth-quarter high in 2016, according to latest Wood Mackenzie data.

“Vestas crushed firm order intake in 2018,” said Wood Mackenzie Power & Renewables research director Luke Lewandowski, lead author of its Global Wind Turbine Order Analysis: Q1 2019. “The company's 5.5GW haul in Q4 represented more than the full-year intake of all OEMs, other than the top three.” Vestas booked 14.2GW for 2018 as a whole.

Germany’s Nordex also had a good end to the year, with 1.8GW of Q4 orders allowing it to claim fourth spot in the full-year OEM order rankings with a 4.8GW 2018 total.

Turbine orders grew 31% overall last year, helped by a rebound of demand in China and high activity in India and Australia.

Offshore wind set its own record with 8GW of orders last year. Turbines rated higher than 8MW took more than 40% of that – and MHI Vestas accounted for two-thirds of that ratings segment.

Looking forward, Lewandowski said: “Global turbine pricing remains relatively stable quarter-on-quarter, if not increasing in certain markets.

“Demand for new turbine models ahead of policy expirations and targets has started to fill order books as OEMs transition production lines, which has caused a modest uptick in pricing.”

Note: Amends some earlier figures after correction issued by Wood Mackenzie