Renewables Wind Vestas announces layoffs in Colorado blade manufacturing facilities
Wind
Vestas announces layoffs in Colorado blade manufacturing facilities
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- Category: Wind
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25 Feb 2013
- Published on Monday, 25 February 2013 07:59
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Danish wind turbine manufacturer Vestas will be laying off almost 10 percent of its employees in its blade factories in Colorado.
In a statement, the company expressed regrets at having to lay off highly skilled employees but the move was necessary “in order to adjust manufacturing capacity to the expected market demand for wind turbines in 2013.”
Vestas has two blade factories in Colorado located in Windsor and Brighton. The layoffs will affect around 1,100 manufacturing employees.
The announced layoffs will not impact Vestas’ others employees in the state, including those at a nacelle factor in Brighton and a tower factory in Pueblo. The company actually plans to increase their employees in Pueblo, following an announcement on January 16 that they had an agreement to supply towers for third parties for wind power projects in North America.
Vestas plans to add more than 100 jobs at the Pueblo tower factory by the end of the first quarter of 2013.
The company said that their decision to both lay off and hire employees in 2013 is an example of their flexible business strategy which makes it possible for Vestas to quickly scale up or down depending on business needs and market demands.
The company also said that the recent extension of the American Production Tax Credits for wind (see related story) did not affect their hiring and firing decisions or affect their market projections for 2013. Vestas knew the late timing of the P.T.C. extension would result in a significant reduction in 2013 installations relative to previous years, but it believe that U.S. market will be stronger as a result of the extension.
Vestas still expects to deliver 4 to 5 gigawatts worldwide this year and to employ 16,000 people globally by the end of 2013.
The company remains one of the top wind turbine companies in the world, though they were displaced as world leader in 2012 by General Electric (see related story). – EcoSeed Staff
