MHI Vestas
and CS Wind/Chin Fong sign conditional contract today for the local manufacture
of towers, as wind industry veteran takes the reins at newly formed entity
in
Taipei.
MHI Vestas is firming up its localisation plans in Taiwan as the company
held a signing ceremony today for the manufacture of wind turbine towers in
Taichung Harbour.
“Our activities this week underscore our strong commitment to the Taiwan
offshore wind market and the buildup of a local supply chain,” said Lars Bondo Krogsgaard, MHI Vestas Co-CEO. “The localisation agreement signed
yesterday with CIP, as well as the conditional tower contract we are signing
today with CS Wind, and in partnership with Chin Fong, affirms that when there
is a stable and visible pipeline of projects, MHI Vestas stands ready to invest
and deliver on the promise of offshore wind in Taiwan.”
The tower agreement between
MHI Vestas and the CS Wind/Chin Fong partnership, which will secure local
production of offshore wind turbine towers, is a significant step forward for MHI
Vestas as it advances localisation efforts ahead of its first projects in
Taiwan.
The partnership between CS
Wind and Chin Fong brings together strong industrial players with vast
experience in the wind turbine tower industry as well as local manufacturing
expertise – a partnership that is well positioned to serve the Taiwan offshore
wind industry as it ramps up a local supply chain.
“CS Wind has expanded
its manufacturing bases as to follow our customers and to keep our position as
a market leader in the global wind tower industry. We are delighted to have
this valuable opportunity to capture a leading
market position in the Taiwan offshore market as we have been doing in
the European offshore market with offshore wind towers produced from our UK and Vietnam
facilities,” said Knud Bjarne Hansen, Co-CEO of CS Wind and former president of Vestas Towers. “It is our great pleasure to be able to cooperate with Chin Fong and make use of their excellent facility within
the Taichung Harbour to be the towers manufacturing facility going forward –
Chin Fong has the local knowledge and CS Wind has the
global towers manufacturing knowledge – an ideal combination in the support of
the Taiwanese offshore wind power
market.”
In addition to the conditional tower contract, MHI Vestas has already signed
MOUs with local suppliers for the manufacturing of blades, generator products,
and a range of blade materials.
To date, the company has been named by Copenhagen Infrastructure
Partners (CIP) and China Steel Corporation (CSC) as preferred wind turbine supplier
for 900 MW of offshore wind projects and has declared that its 9 MW turbine platform will be
typhoon ready in 2020, in time for all offshore wind projects in the market.
“CIP first signed an Award Agreement with MHI
Vestas back in March, and yesterday we signed an additional localisation
agreement providing substantial financial backup to support the accelerated
tower localisation by MHI Vestas,”
said Jesper Krarup Holst, CEO of CI Wind Power Development Taiwan. “This is Taiwan's first turbine localisation
agreement, and it ensures that our 2021 tower localisation will be realized in
Taiwan with such a well-respected, local company as Chin Fong, in collaboration
with CS Wind.”
In signing these agreements, MHI Vestas Offshore Wind, a joint venture
between MHI and Vestas Wind Systems, looks to leverage the rich heritage of
wind power expertise from Vestas in the region and decades of energy
infrastructure experience from MHI in Taiwan as it ramps up its operations. The
new MHI Vestas entity will be co-located with MHI in Taipei City.
The new legal entity, MHI Vestas Offshore Wind Taiwan, Ltd., is being steered
by Mr. Gary Sun, a local wind industry veteran who recently joined the company.
MHI Vestas said additional sourcing staff will be added before the end of the
year.