Due to the current market development and cancellation of offshore wind projects, CS Wind Offshore has announced that it is considering laying off around 220 employees at its production facility at Odense Port.
This is due to several offshore wind projects being either postponed or cancelled due to political interventions and unfavourable terms for business cases, the manufacturer said.
This impacts the entire supply chain, including CS Wind Offshore as a supplier to the industry.
A lack of new monopile orders now unfortunately means that the CS Wind Offshore monopile factory at Odense Port will be idle for a substantial period of time, leading to the need for a significant reduction of the workforce at the Lindø site at Odense Port.
CS Wind Offshore will now go into a consultation process with employee representatives and aims to give clarity to all employees by the 23 May.
However, with the promising long-term outlook for monopile business, the company said it would continue exploring various strategies to ensure continuation and growth of the operations.
CS Wind vice chairman Knud Bjarne Hansen, said: “Over the past couple of years our employees have worked very hard to get our monopile factory fully up and running.
“Great progress has been made, and it is highly regrettable that we now see no other option than to ramp down due to a lack of new orders.
“We sincerely regret the impact this is likely to have on good and highly competent colleagues, who have dedicated their time and efforts to the company.
“This includes not only our own staff, but also the many sub-suppliers who are supporting our work in various ways.
“We are committed to ensuring a proper and thorough dialogue with our employees and supporting them in moving on in the best possible way.”
Despite the current lack of monopile orders, CS Wind Offshore said it remains committed to the business area and expects to deliver its high quality monopiles to customers once again in the future, possibly not just from the factory at Odense Port, but also leveraging the global production setup that CS Wind has available.
Hansen added: “CS Wind acquired Bladt Industries in order to expand our offshore product offering, so there is no doubt that we want to stay in the monopile business.
“It is also important to note that we will of course finalise delivery of the monopiles we are currently producing at Odense Port so the contemplated reduction of the workforce will take place over the coming 3-9 months.”