Chief executive Henrik Andersen insists Vestas is in fit shape to operate effectively in a global wind market potentially disrupted for the long term by coronavirus.

Andersen told Recharge that the Danish group – the world’s biggest supplier of onshore wind turbines – learned lessons in the earliest stages of the pandemic in January that he claimed were crucial to keeping disruption to a minimum since.

The CEO said the longest any Vestas factory has been closed so far is two weeks, and that was in China, with the experience in the first weeks of the Covid-19 outbreak helping Vestas put the protocols and systems in place to manage production downtime as the pandemic rolled through the wind industry’s key manufacturing locations, while ensuring employee safety and satisfying local regulations.

With 30 confirmed coronavirus cases out of a total of 25,500 employees, the company’s safety measures had proved robust, he claimed.

“We know how to do it, now it let’s keep going, because it works. That formula we don’t intend to change,” said Andersen. “Now we are mentally preparing ourselves for if it [the pandemic] were to reemerge in the autumn.”

Vestas has seen “almost no lost days” in the US. In its home market “you’d hear Denmark has been completely closed. In reality, we have managed to get all our components and raw materials in, and our manufactured assets out again,” he added.

But meeting that logistical challenge has come at the cost of higher transportation expenses that contributed to the company posting a loss in the first quarter, and some key production locations are still facing challenges.

Vestas’ India-based production is running at below full capacity, although at a “high percentage”, after the company was able to secure permits needed to keep operating there under what Andersen described as less than satisfactory “stop-start” conditions.

The company is also facing challenges in Brazil, where production is operating but subject to supply chain bottlenecks that mean “some delays” are in prospect.

Beyond the factories, the universal acceptance of wind as now a part of “critical infrastructure” for governments around the world had helped Vestas employees gain crucial access to wind plants for service and construction purposes.

Andersen – who didn’t expect to be dealing with a global healthcare emergency in his first year in the job – said he was happy with “nine out of 10” of the decisions made by Vestas so far.

Will the closed borders and disruptions caused by the pandemic result in a less global Vestas supply chain in the future, as it works to fulfil a record €34.1bn ($37bn) order book?

“I’m sure there are some learnings, but we believe it [the global supply chain] works very well, otherwise we wouldn’t be saying what we’re saying today.”

A global ‘big five’ of wind turbine OEMs – Vestas, Siemens Gamesa, GE, Goldwind and Envision – is expected to control two-thirds of the global market by the end of this year, as industry consolidation continues, said analysts at Wood Mackenzie Power & Renewables.

Wind

Wind giant Vestas CEO: 'We learned early how to operate in a pandemic'