Vestas is continuing their plan of restructuring by announcing the lay off's of 10% of its manufacturing workforce at its blade factories in Windsor and Brighton, Colorado, which employs nearly 1,100 People. Vestas said they have laid off highly skilled employees in order to adjust manufacturing capacity to the expected market demand for wind turbines in 2013.
Vestas said the announcement will not affect the employees at the Vestas nacelle factory in Brighton, Colorado, or the tower factory in Pueblo, Colorado. On 16 January, Vestas announced an agreement to supply towers for third parties for wind power projects in North America. As a result of the increased activity, Vestas plans to add more than 100 jobs at the tower factory in Pueblo by the end of the first quarter of 2013.
Renewed PTC does not change market projections
The recent extension of the American support scheme for renewable electricity, the Production Tax Credit (PTC) does not affect Vestas’ market projections for 2013: Vestas still expects to deliver between 4 to 5 GW worldwide this year and to employ no more than 16,000 people globally by the end of 2013. Due to the time it takes from when an order is placed to when the project begins, Vestas knew the late timing of the PTC-extension would result in a significant reduction in 2013 installations relative to previous years. However, the U.S. market will nonetheless be stronger as a result of the renewed PTC.
With more than 30 years of presence in the US market, Vestas remains committed to manufacture wind turbines in the USA. In the past five years, Vestas has made large investments in Colorado to establish a regional manufacturing presence that has created many American jobs. Vestas’ four Colorado factories will continue to manufacture wind turbine components for the US market, as well as export to Canada and Latin America.
Major Manufactures Laying off employees in 2013
Vestas is not the only manufacturer, which had laid off their employees. Indian Wind Turbine OEM, Suzlon is also planning to close out their operations of their Rotor Blade and Control Panel manufacturing facility in Puducherry, India (link to the News).
