Siemens Gamesa acquires Ria Blades wind turbine blade production plant

Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy has wrapped up the final acquisition of all shares in Ria Blades, the business entity which owns and operates the onshore wind turbine blade production plant in Vagos, Portugal, and other additional assets needed to operate the facility.

The Spanish wind turbine manufacturer said that the closing of the acquisition means that the company has now fully wrapped up the acquisition of select assets from Senvion.

The wind turbine manufacturing plant in Portugal is said to offer best-in-class operational features and is well connected by road and also the sea. The acquisition is said to help to bolster the competitiveness of Siemens Gamesa in its onshore business by absorbing expected growth in production from external suppliers, primarily from Asia, and will become an export hub for global markets.

It will further improve existing manufacturing capabilities and curb the exposure to supply chain bottlenecks, volatility from foreign exchange markets, and trade tariffs.

Siemens Gamesa acquires Ria Blades wind turbine blade production plant in Portugal. Photo courtesy of Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy, S.A.

Alfonso Faubel – CEO of the Onshore business unit at Siemens Gamesa said: “The acquisition of Senvion‘s Ria Blades factory was an opportunity we could not afford to miss. It is one of Europe’s most competitive plants, a cutting-edge facility that is very complementary to our existing footprint. The new plant will help us to serve different markets with different models and we will do this meeting the highest standards in quality of manufacturing.”

Siemens Gamesa said that the integration of the Onshore European Service assets and Intellectual Property (IP) started in early January 2020 and will boost its multibrand service portfolio, enabling the company to service an even wider variety of wind turbine technologies.

Markus Tacke – CEO of Siemens Gamesa said: “We are pleased that we were able to complete the acquisition process so constructively together with our new colleagues and partners.

“We are operating in a highly competitive market environment and to remain successful in such an environment demands that we must continuously strive to find ways to grow and adapt to market dynamics.”

The Onshore European Service unit acquisition added nearly 9GW in service fleet across 13 European countries, bringing the total serviced fleet to nearly 69GW across the world, while diversifying the business mix and geographical footprint in Europe, with contracts that are said to have long-term visibility and high renewal rates.

The total purchase price for the selected assets of Senvion, including the manufacturing facility in Vagos, the Onshore European Services assets and IP is €200 million.