Nordex planning to extend its Rostock facilities

Investment budget of EUR 86 million / at least 300 new jobs

Hamburg.- “With an order backlog of around EUR 2.1 billion, our sales forecasts are secure beyond 2008,” says Thomas Richterich, CEO of Nordex AG, commenting on plans to extend the Company’s Rostock production facilities. In 2008, Nordex wants to double its sales over the 2006 figure with an increase to more than EUR 1 billion. Roughly 94 percent of the Company’s business is coming from Europe and is thus to be handled by the Rostock facilities. Says Richterich: “As we are currently operating at full capacity utilization, we must extend our production facilities in Rostock massively if we are to continue growing as planned.” Nordex has already been outpacing the competition for the past two years, with no end in sight.

The investment budget is initially valued at EUR 86 million and provides for an extension in annual capacity from a current 850 megawatts to 2,000 megawatts in 2010. This applies to the assembly of wind turbines, with rotor blade production to be increased no less than threefold. Nordex is making major extensions to its facilities at its existing site at the Rostock port. Over a period of three years, production facilities with a floor area of around 70,000 square meters are to be built on premises measuring 220,000 square meters. This will be supplemented with new administration buildings to ensure that all main production-related functions based in Rostock are located at a single site.

Extensions of this magnitude would not be possible at the Company’s core site in the south of Rostock as the increase in delivery traffic would exert undue strain on the nearby residential areas. What is more, it is easier to implement a modern production model as a greenfield investment. However, money must be spent on improving the access routes to ensure efficient operations at the port. Explains Richterich: “The current motorway and port access routes are currently a bottleneck for our large turbines. However, talks with the city and the state government in an effort to find a solution are progressing well.”

Depending on capacity utilization levels, at least 300 new jobs are to be created at Nordex following the extensions. The Company currently has around 450 blue color workers at its Rostock facility.

In addition, Nordex has medium-term plans for further foreign facilities. Nordex can only satisfy the rising global demand if it has sufficient production capacities on all continents. Accordingly, the existing facilities in China are to be extended, while thought is being given to the establishment of a production presence in the United States.