The world's largest wind turbine maker, Denmark-based Vestas', third- quarter results on Thursday were boosted by strong orders for its turbines as analysts reported the group was obtaining higher prices for its products.
Vestas CEO Anders Runevad said the business was growing in all areas with its orders, with back orders now totaling almost $9 billion.
The order backlog amounted to 8.953 GW at the end of September 2015, the company said.
This was an increase of 1.498 GW from the end of September 2014, it said.
Europe, Middle East, and Africa accounted for 51% of the backlog, and Americas and Asia Pacific accounted for 41% and 8%, respectively.
Vestas said the value of the order backlog was Eur8.2 billion ($8.9 billion) at the end of September compared with Eur6.7 billion at the end of September 2014, an increase of 22%.
In Q3 Vestas produced and shipped wind turbines with an aggregate output of 2.477 GW (1,048 wind turbines) against 2.183 GW a year earlier.
Vestas said the rise was mainly driven by increased deliveries in the US.
Deliveries in EMEA in the quarter totaled 838 MW compared with 876 MW a year earlier.
Deliveries were distributed in several different parts of the region, with Poland being the country in the region where most capacity was installed.
The order intake for the region amounted to 683 MW, up from 652 MW in Q3 2014. The order intake was mainly from Germany, Finland, and France. The order backlog comprised 4.599 GW as of September 30.
Deliveries to the Americas were boosted by deliveries to the US.
With 1.009 GW, the largest in a quarter to date, deliveries to the US more than tripled on the year.
Vestas said that based on its improved delivery visibility for the remainder of the year it was upgrading its guidance on full year group sales as well as margins.
The company reported Q3 net profit of Eur206 million, more than double the Eur102 million a year earlier.
