By Kari Williamson
China is increasingly focusing on wind turbines with stronger performance and superior product quality, rather than lowest capital cost. This has led to Goldwind recapturing leadership in China, while Sinovel and Dongfang dropped in both regional and global rankings.
Vestas was able to maintain its position as the world’s largest turbine OEM in 2011, in spite of the strength of the Chinese wind turbine OEMs in their 17.6GW domestic market.
Vestas’ strong performance in the Americas allowed the group to distance itself from the rest of the top five market players this year, commanding a 4.1 percentage point lead over second-placed China’s Goldwind.
Enercon leads in Europe
In Western markets, Enercon surpassed Vestas as Europe’s market leader due to its dominance in the booming German onshore wind market plus a strong performance in Southern European markets such as France and Italy.
In the Americas, long-standing market leader GE Wind gave ground to Vestas and Siemens, placing the conglomerate in second place within the region, with Vestas just edging the top spot.
MAKE’s Top Ten global wind turbine OEM rankings:
- Vestas – 12.9%
- Goldwind – 8.8%
- Enercon – 7.6%
- Suzlon Group – 7.6%
- Siemens – 7.6%
- GE Wind – 7.4%
- Sinovel – 7.2%
- United Power – 7.0%
- Gamesa – 6.4%
- Mingyang – 2.9%