THE FRIDAY NOTE: Vestas to shed 3,000 more jobs and the rest of the week's top picks

(SeeNews) – Nov 9, 2012 - This week Vestas unveils more lay offs after deepening loss and decline in orders, South Africa turns into a boom for the renewable energy industry and the trade conflict between China, Europe and the US progresses.

Danish wind turbine maker Vestas Wind Systems A/S (CPH:VWS) in the middle of the week said it would cut another 3,000 jobs due to a thinning order backlog in the third quarter of 2012. The company is expected to cut the number of employees through divestments, layoffs and by not filling vacant positions and end 2013 with a headcount of 16,000.

On Wednesday Vestas reported worse-than-expected financial results with an after tax loss widening to EUR 175 million (USD 225.2m). The Danish group also said its latest projections for free cash flow for 2012 were between negative EUR 500 million and a break-even level, compared with previous expectations of a positive free cash flow.

Destination South Africa

South Africa seems to be the hottest market for renewable energy in the last couple of days after the government signed power purchase agreements (PPAs) for a total of 1.4 GW of solar and wind projects under the first round of the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producers Programme (REIPPP).

Under the programme South Africa aims to install 3.7 GW of renewable energy capacity by 2016 and bring another 3.2 GW online by 2020.

Below are some of the projects that first hit the headlines:

The bidders in the first round are expected to invest some ZAR 47 billion (USD 5.4bn). On Wednesday South Africa's Standard Bank said it would provide ZAR 9.4 billion of debt for 11 of the 28 projects approved in the first round. The bank will also back five projects in the second bidding round committing another ZAR 6.1 billion.

Solar trade row between China, the EU and the US continues

A week after initiating an anti-dumping investigation into EU-made solar polysilicon, China made another move by filing a complaint with the World Trade Organisation (WTO) against several EU member states over alleged subsidies for solar power. China’s Ministry of Commerce spokesman said on Monday the green programmes of certain EU states violated WTO rules on national treatment and affected Chinese exports, without specifying which EU countries were involved in the case.

The EU response duly followed. The European Commission (EC) Thursday accepted EU ProSun’s complaint and launched a probe into alleged state subsidies for Chinese solar cell makers.

In the meantime, Chinese solar makers were hit hard as the US International Trade Commission (USITC) Thursday confirmed it would impose the previously announced anti-dumping and anti-subsidy duties of up 250% on imports of Chinese crystalline silicon solar cells.

(ZAR 1 = USD 0.115/EUR 0.090)

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