UPDATE 2-Wind turbine firms close Spanish factories as coronavirus restrictions tighten
* Sector leader Vestas closes two Spanish factories
* Nordex suspends production in Spain
* Siemens Gamesa has closed eight plants in Spain
(Recasts with Vestas, Siemens Gamesa, context)
By Christoph Steitz, Isla Binnie and Stine Jacobsen
FRANKFURT/MADRID/COPENHAGEN, April 1 (Reuters) - Europe's
largest wind turbine makers on Wednesday said they had shut down
more factories in Spain, a major hub for the continent's
renewables sector, in response to an almost total lockdown in
the country to contain the coronavirus outbreak.
Denmark's Vestas , the world No.1, has suspended
production at its two Spanish plants, a spokesman told Reuters,
adding that its service and maintenance business was still
working. Vestas has also paused manufacturing and construction
in India, which is under a nationwide lockdown too, he said.
Top rival Siemens Gamesa suspended production at
six Spanish factories on Monday, bringing total closures there
to eight, a spokeswoman said.
Four components factories are still partially up and
running, at Reinosa on the north coast, Cuenca near Madrid,
Mungia and Siguiero, she added.
Germany's Nordex , the No.8 globally which is 36%
owned by Spain's Acciona , has now shuttered all of its
production in Spain, including two nacelle casing factories in
Barasoain and Vall d'Uixo, as well as a rotor blade site in
Lumbier.
"Production is no longer active," a spokeswoman said in
response to a Reuters query.
The new closures take the number of idled wind power
factories on the continent to 19, all in Spain and Italy, the
European countries worst hit by the pandemic. This figure also
includes sites run by General Electric unit LM Wind
Power.
Spain is second only to Italy in terms of numbers of
coronavirus-related fatalities and restrictions have become even
stricter in the country's third week of lockdown. [nL8N2BM09X]
"Some factories have temporarily paused activity as a
precautionary step to strengthen sanitary measures within the
sites and guarantee full compliance with government
recommendations," industry association WindEurope said.
Consultancy Wood Mackenzie expects new installations in the
global wind sector to shrink by 4.9 gigawatts (GW) to 73 GW this
year due to the pandemic.
Siemens Gamesa, which is majority-owned by Germany's Siemens
, is continuing to build parks, focusing on those
sites that are almost ready to be fired up, and operate its park
maintenance business. |
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