Vestas: Low Oil Price, No Problem
The oil price drop has not discouraged investment in rival wind power as much as feared, the chairman of Danish Vestas Wind Systems said on Monday.
"I thought low oil prices would be a challenge but when looking at the first quarter, we received a lot of orders despite the low oil price," Bert Nordberg told Reuters.
"Nobody can tell me whether oil prices will stay around $50 per barrel for the next two years but I can tell you the price for energy from a wind park for the next 20," he said.
Speaking after an annual general meeting, he said improvement in wind turbine technology is reducing the cost of producing electricity, making the industry viable and reliable
Vestas booked orders worth 1,185 megawatts (MW) in capacity since the start of the year, far higher than the 584 MW in the first quarter last year.
One of the largest wind turbine makers in the world, Vestas increased revenues by 14 percent last year to 6.9 billion euros, compared to the 2.5 billion euros its closest competitor, Siemens (SIEMENS.NS) Wind Power had reported, a 6 percent rise.
A consultancy report has demoted Vestas from the top of the list of the largest wind turbine makers, placing Siemens first, based on the market share of newly installed machines connected to the grid.
Other consultancies still place Vestas as the largest.
Vestas is playing catch-up in offshore turbines, a new frontier of wind energy, which is dominated by Siemens. Vestas dominates the onshore market.
With over 150,000 individual shareholders, Vestas is among companies in Denmark with the most varied ownership, although that has also made its stock notoriously volatile especially when the business experienced troubled times several years ago during the global financial crisis.
In a few days shareholders will receive dividends of 3.9 crowns per share -- the first time in 12 years the company has rewarded them.
Vestas reported net profit for 2014 of 392 million euros, the first net profit 2010.
Reporting by Ole Mikkelsen
