Vestas slashes 20% of N American workforce on production tax expiry

Oct 12, 2012 - Danish wind turbine maker Vestas Wind Systems A/S (CPH:VWS) said it had cut its headcount in the US and Canada by some 20% this year, citing uncertainty around the extension of the US production tax credit.

The company has let go around 800 employees in the region, which were involved in manufacturing, sales, service, supply chain and research and development, it said in a statement on Friday.

The latest move in Vestas’ plan to align its workforce to market demand was this week’s lay-off of 18% of its Colorado staff, which involved workers at two blade factories. The company did not specify the number of lay-offs, but summed up that in 2012 it had shed about 500 jobs in the state leaving 1,200 employees there.

“Vestas will continue to scale its workforce up or down depending on business needs and market demands,” the company said in the statement. In its quarterly report in August Vestas pointed out that it would cut its global workforce to some 19,000 by end-2012.

The expiry of the production tax credit in the US has already impacted wind turbine orders for 2013 not only for the Danish company. This summer sector players Clipper Windpower Plc (LON:CWP), Siemens AG (ETR:SIE) and LM Wind Power also unveiled lay-offs in the US.

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