Suzlon exits Brazilian wind power market

Indian wind turbine maker Suzlon Energy Ltd (BOM:532667) announced on Friday it was closing its Brazilian arm - Suzlon Energia Eolica do Brasil Ltda.

Established in 2006, the subsidiary has so far managed all business opportunities in Brazil for the Indian company.

The closing of the unit comes after the company carefully considered all options and it is a consequence of multiple factors that are unique to the Latin American country, Suzlon said in the news release.

"The decision does not, in any way, alter Suzlon’s global operations strategy," a company spokesperson noted.

Once, one of the most promising markets for the wind power industry, Brazil has become a rather difficult market to predict. Last year, Brazil's Ministry of Mines and Energy cancelled a wind and solar reserve energy auction, despite heavy criticism by wind industry association Abeeolica.

Abeeolica president Elbia Gannoum warned that the cancellation of the tender is "almost a deadly blow" for the wind energy supply chain in the country. In 2015 Brazil did not contract a lot of wind power capacity, which will result in idle capacity by 2017, and the zero megawatts of wind contracted in 2016 will mean that factories will be offline in 2018, Gannoum said at the time, forecasting that large wind equipment suppliers will not continue doing business in Brazil with empty factories.

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