Canadian wind turbine tower manufacturer DSME Trenton is shutting its Nova Scotia plant after failing to land enough orders to keep operations going.
The province, which poured C$56m into the joint venture with Korean-owned Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering, said it will file for receivership to try to recover as much of its investment as possible.
“DSME Trenton”s future prospects have not improved over the past year and the domestic wind tower market is well below expectations,” said Nova Scotia business minister Mark Furey.
As recently as last week, the manufacturer was trying to find an outside investor and diversify into other types of heavy steel fabrication.
However the plant does not have any orders and is operating in a maintenance mode with 19 active employees. It costs up to C$400,000 a month to stay open.
The province’s contribution included up to C$36m in repayable loans however the plant said this week it will not be able to start repayments, which were scheduled to begin in early 2018.
Parent company DSME South Korea is undergoing organizational restructuring in an attempt to recover from recent, substantial operating losses, said DSME Trenton.
All foreign subsidiaries not related to the core business of shipbuilding, including the Nova Scotia factory, are subject to the mandated restructuring process.
The plant opened in 2010 and in its early days the tower fabricator scored several contracts in Atlantic Canada, including a 34-tower order for the 102MW South Canoe scheme (pictured) commissioned in 2015, Nova Scotia’s largest wind farm.
Markets in the region dried up however and Nova Scotia has dialed back plans for new wind projects. The province’s 25-year electricity plan released in October 2015 foresees no need for new large-scale power generation before 2030.
Image: South Canoe
