MHI Vestas Continues To Expand Local Taiwanese Footprint 

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Offshore wind energy giant MHI Vestas announced on Tuesday that it had signed a contract for the manufacture of wind turbine towers in Taiwan with CS Wind/Chin Fong as the company continues to build up its footprint in the next global offshore wind energy hub.

Over the last year, we have watched Taiwan emerge and then explode onto the scene as the definite next hub for offshore wind energy development after the Taiwan Bureau of Energy announced the results of two auctions this year, awarding a total of 5.4 gigawatts (GW) to various developers and companies, both local and international. In that time, companies expected to be providing the wind turbines for the ramp-up of offshore wind energy have begun solidifying plans to create local bases from which to operate and signing Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) with local manufacturing companies for the necessary parts.

Most prominently, Spanish wind turbine manufacturers Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy and Danish heavyweight MHI Vestas have both been firming up their localization plans throughout the year, signing numerous MoUs, building up their local supply chain and firming up local manufacturing and operating bases.

On Tuesday, MHI Vestas revealed that it had signed a contract for the local manufacture of towers with a newly-formed partnership between CS Wind and Chin Fong. The news comes less than a month after Siemens Gamesa made a similar announcement, awarding Taiwanese chemical manufacturing company Swancor with the contract to supply resin for turbine blades to be used at the Formosa 1 Phase 2 offshore wind project, and the supply of towers to the same partnership between CS Wind and Chin Fong.

“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 Formosa 1 offshore wind farm, Taiwan’s first

The newly-signed agreement with CS Wind and Chin Fong begins to solidify MHI Vestas’ presence in the region. CS Wind is a global wind turbine tower supplier for both the onshore and offshore wind industries and was already contracted to supply the towers for the 120 megawatt (MW) Formosa 1 Phase 2 project. Since then, however, the company has partnered with Chin Fong Machine Industrial, which boasts expertise in mechanical power presses and metal forming technologies. The two companies will work out of the latter’s existing facilities at Taichung Harbour to deliver locally-built towers.

“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,” said Knud Bjarne Hansen, Co-CEO of CS Wind and former president of Vestas Towers. “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.”

“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.”


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Joshua S Hill

I'm a Christian, a nerd, a geek, and I believe that we're pretty quickly directing planet-Earth into hell in a handbasket! I also write for Fantasy Book Review (.co.uk), and can be found writing articles for a variety of other sites. Check me out at about.me for more.

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