Siemens Gamesa pulled its financial guidance for 2020 as it became the second of the world’s big wind turbine groups to admit the full impact of the coronavirus pandemic is impossible to accurately forecast.

The Spanish-German group said Covid-19 impacts on “supply chain, manufacturing operations, project execution, and commercial activity” had added to existing challenges in Northern Europe and India, mainly hitting its onshore business.

The disruption “had accelerated the slow-down in the Indian market and complicated execution of the Northern Europe pipeline beyond what was reported in the first quarter of Financial Year 2020”.

The impact has mostly been felt in its onshore business. “Offshore and service operations might experience some disruptions in the coming months, although these are so far expected to be significantly lower.”

The company said it is withdrawing guidance already lowered to a pre-tax (Ebit) margin between 4.5% and 6% after the first quarter of 2020, when Siemens Gamesa said it was hit by weather-related delays to Norwegian projects.

Withdrawing the forecast altogether it said: “Given the rapidly evolving nature of the Covid-19 pandemic, uncertainties about the duration and depth of it, and the variety of countermeasures enforced by governments around the world to combat its effects … [Siemens Gamesa] cannot forecast or quantify with reasonable accuracy the full duration and financial magnitude of the impact.”

The company has been forced at various stages to close factories in China, Spain, the UK and India as a result of the pandemic.

The wind group said: “Our Chinese factories began to return to regular operations from the end of March and we have now been able to resume operations in Spain and are working closely with other governments to enable us to do so elsewhere.”

Siemens Gamesa added that it entered the crisis with a strong balance sheet and liquidity with more than €2bn of credit lines available.

CEO Markus Tacke said: “Siemens Gamesa is proud that during this period of extraordinary disruption our products and services are enabling the uninterrupted supply of clean energy to our homes, hospitals and communities.

“That we have been able to do so is down to the courage, resilience and creativity of our global team working in partnership with our customers and suppliers.”

Fellow global OEM giant Vestas earlier in April suspended its own 2020 financial guidance citing coronavirus visibility.

Wind

Siemens Gamesa pulls 2020 financial guidance over coronavirus disruption