By Nora Buli
COPENHAGEN (Reuters) -Danish wind turbine maker Vestas swung to a profit in the second quarter from a loss a year before, maintaining its financial outlook for 2025 on expectations it could overcome the impact of U.S. policy uncertainty.
Vestas reported an April-June operating profit before one-off items of 57 million euros ($66.56 million) on Wednesday, below the 89 million expected by analysts but up from a loss of 185 million euros in the corresponding period of 2024.
Risk from tariffs and U.S. shifts on renewables policy was offset by good order momentum in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, as well as by local production and an ability to pass on costs, the company said.
Several analysts indicated that the lower-than-expected quarterly operating profit was not a major concern.
The U.S. is the biggest national market after the EMEA region for Vestas, which also sells widely in Asia and is the largest wind turbine maker outside of China.
The company’s order intake for new wind turbines declined 44% year-on-year to 2,009 megawatts (MW) in the second quarter, but still beat an average forecast among analysts of 1,860 MW.
The order intake has since rebounded, including in the U.S. where renewable developments continue despite efforts by President Donald Trump to curtail incentives for wind and solar energy, CEO Henrik Andersen told Reuters.
“Already now at this time in the third quarter, we are higher in order intake … than we were for the full order in the second quarter,” Andersen said.
Vestas kept its 2025 forecast unchanged for an operating profit margin before special items of 4%-7% and revenue of 18 billion to 20 billion euros, up from 17.3 billion euros in 2024.
While tariffs remain an uncertainty, Vestas’ local production made it less vulnerable to measures imposed by the United States, Andersen said.
The company expects to pass on tariffs to customers, which will ultimately raise the price of electricity, he added.
The company’s shares traded down 2.3% by 1029 GMT, and are up 16% year-to-date.
“There is of course some regulatory uncertainty in the U.S., but right now Trump is not interfering with setting up wind turbines. However, the future is still uncertain,” Sydbank analyst Jakob Pedersen said.
($1 = 0.8564 euros)
(Reporting by Nora Buli in Oslo, additional reporting by Soren Sirch Jeppesen in Copenhagen; editing by Terje Solsvik, Bernadette Baum, and Aidan Lewis)
