More bad news in the alternative energy field, an announcement from German manufacturer Nordex of the end of U.S. production — wind turbine production in Jonesboro. A facility will remain in place in Jonesboro for service, parts and repair. The release says about 40 workers will be affected.
All I have at moment is news release:
Nordex SE announced today that the company will cease nacelle production at its Jonesboro, Arkansas facility after it completes the orders in its current pipeline. The decision was driven by the wind industry’s global overcapacity and the continued uncertainty and instability of the US market. The decision will not impact the current year’s business performance, as exceptional expenses were already accounted for in 2012 as previously reported.
Dr. Jürgen Zeschky, CEO of Nordex SE, explained, “This was an extremely difficult decision for Nordex. We are reacting to the weakened demand from the US market, brought on by the unpredictable extensions of the Production Tax Credit (PTC), and the resulting low utilization rate of our US assembly plant. We see great potential in the US and Latin American markets and are committed to serving those markets and increasing our installed base. With this decision we also increase our flexibility to react to US demand for our turbines out of one single plant in Rostock, Germany. We will be maintaining the extensive expertise in sales, engineering, service, project management, training and support which we have built at our Chicago and Jonesboro locations to continue the growth we have achieved through these challenging times.”
Ralf Sigrist, President & CEO of Nordex USA, Inc. commented, “This is a sad day for all of us at Nordex USA. We will lose valued colleagues, who have done their very best for us, but the decision was inevitable considering the underutilization of our plant.”
In the future, nacelles for the North and Latin American markets will be supplied from Nordex’ factory in Rostock, Germany, using the global supply chain and logistics support based there. Service activities for all existing US wind farms are not affected by the closure of the US production. The training academy, the central parts storage and the repair facility in Jonesboro will remain in operation to support Service and Operations in the Americas. Around 40 employees will be affected with layoffs beginning in October 2013.
The restructuring of the company in the United States is in line with Nordex’ strategy to position its operations to maximize capacity utilization.
Nordex opened the plant with great fanfare and state assistance in 2010.
UPDATE: Gov. Mike Beebe blasts Congress for not helping. You have to remember that the Kochs, Exxon, etc., spend big money to control Congress for their kind of energy production and people like Tim Griffin and Tom Cotton, particularly, got the message loud and clear. Tim Griffin, who's doing all he can to ship Koch tar sands from Canada to Gulf refineries for transshipment to Asia, no matter the cost to the environment of the Great Plains, naturally defends his vote against wind energy tax credits.
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