MHI Vestas Signs Tower Contract, Firms Up Localisation Plans in Taiwan

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.

Noritake Hossyo, MHI Taiwan General Manager, said, “We are extremely happy that MHI Vestas Offshore Wind has agreed to co-locate their office with MHI in Taipei. We believe that this will allow our strong energy and infrastructure experience to assist MHI Vestas with their plan to be a leading offshore wind turbine manufacturer in Taiwan.”

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.