Vestas Wind Systems said that the wind turbine market has stabilized after a rocky year and predicts that western governments will continue investing in green energy despite pressure on public finances.
The upbeat remarks came as shares in the world's largest turbine maker by market share rose by as much as 23% after Vestas announced forecast beating second quarter results and reiterated bullish guidance for the full year.
Mr Ditlev Engel CEO reported signs of fresh momentum behind wind power as Germany and other countries back away from nuclear power following the disaster at Japan's tsunami hit Fukushima Daiichi power plant.
He acknowledged that some important turbine markets such as Spain had been hit by the eurozone debt crisis and that government subsidies for renewable energy would remain under pressure. But he said investment in green power could not be avoided if Europe was to meet rising demand for electricity while cutting carbon emissions.
He told FT that "When you look at the energy options on the table, we believe wind power is increasingly attractive."
Mr Engel said the worst appeared to be past but warned that business conditions remained tough, amid rising competition from China as well as western rivals including General Electric and Siemens. He added that "We are back to a more normal market but it is still very competitive and we expect it to remain very competitive."
The Danish company stuck to its full year guidance for earnings and order intake, predicting orders for between 7,000 MW and 8,000 MW of installed production capacity, compared with 8,673 MW in 2010. This confounded widespread expectations that the company would lower its guidance.
Mr Engel said that Vestas expected a quarter of its order intake to come from the Americas this year after heavy investment in US manufacturing capacity. Half of orders would come from Europe and the remainder from Asia.
