Denmark - Vestas wind turbines prove resilient amid economic gloom

Vestas, the world's largest wind turbine maker, brought some cheer to a renewable power sector struggling against the credit crunch.

The Danish company today reported a better-than-expected 51% rise in its full-year operating profit and maintained its 2009 sales and profit forecasts.

But it admitted that profit growth seen over the last three years would slow during the next 12 months and said costs would be cut back if there was improvement in demand over the next quarter.

Earnings before interest and taxes rose to €668m (£598m) last year from 443 million in 2007 and Vestas said it still expected to produce sales of €7.2bn (£6.4bn) and a profit margin of 11% to 13% in 2009.

The turbine maker said it had not experienced any cancellations so far and orders for 2008 rose to 6,109 megawatts of capacity while the end-of-year order backlog was 4,806.

But the company said plans for future investment of €1.2bn still depended on an improvement in future trading conditions and chief executive Ditlev Engel would not rule out redundancies.

"If the world does not improve, we will have to look to cut jobs at Vestas," he told financial analysts at a results meeting in New York.