Price pressure, particularly in onshore wind, and demand disruption caused by the implementation of competitive auctions in some markets hit Siemens Gamesa results for the 2018 financial year.
Revenue was down 17% to just over €9.1bn compared with almost €11bn in the previous year, while reported earnings before interest and taxes stood at €211m, a drop of 51% from the €428m reported in 2017.
Wind turbine business revenue fell 20% to about €7.9bn from over €9.7bn previously. However, the drop was slightly offset by a 6% improvement in the company’s services unit, which saw revenue rise to almost €1.3bn from below €1.2bn.
Onshore revenue was down 26% to under €4.9bn from over €6.5bn, while offshore revenue fell 7% to just below €3bn from more than €3.3bn in 2017.
Orders were up 9% to just under €11.9bn driven by a recovery in the onshore market. The onshore market accounted for almost €6.7bn, a rise of 30% on 2017.
Offshore orders reached almost €2.8bn, including the company’s single largest offshore deal for 165 turbines for the Hornsea 2 wind farm off the east coast of England.
The group’s backlog stood at €22.8bn, up from €20.7bn at the end of September 2017.
Over €10.7bn of the backlog was in the service business, a rise of 47%, with offshore accounting for €6.9bn, down 4.5%, and onshore up 43% to €5.1bn.
Siemens Gamesa said the 2018 results were in line with expectations for is first full year since the merger and it achieved all the milestones set for the year, making a net profit of €70m.
It has set guidance for the 2019 financial year of revenue between €10-11bn and is on track to meet 2020 financial year targets.
The company also reported that it had appointed Christoph Wollny as chief operating officer. He was previously chief procurement officer at Siemens power and gas division.