Broadwind Energy, Inc. (NASDAQ: BWEN) recently announced the reception of $15 million in new wind turbine tower orders. The contract is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of this year. The company plans to produce these towers in its Manitowoc, Wisconsin, facility ahead of scheduled delivery in 2017.
“We are pleased to be awarded this order for 2017 production,” Stephanie Kushner, president and chief executive officer of Broadwind, stated in a news release. “There is a lot of positive momentum occurring within our Towers business as we continue to benefit from the strong wind market dynamics in the U.S. Our plants are running smoothly and we continue to deliver exceptional quality towers ahead of schedule.”
This new agreement marks the second time in less than two months that Broadwind has successfully secured a sizable wind turbine tower supply agreement. In early June, the company announced entry into a $137 million, three-year framework agreement to supply wind turbine towers to a U.S. wind turbine manufacturer. In a news release announcing this landmark agreement, Kushner credited improved market visibility stemming from the certainty of the Production Tax Credit structure as an underlying driver of this spike in business.
In a recap offered by Zacks Equity Research, analysts hailed the back-to-back contracts as an indication of ‘customers’ growing preference for Broadwind’s products’. Taking a look at the company’s financials, this hypothesis seems likely. In the first quarter of 2016, Broadwind recorded $39 million in total orders, nearly doubling its intake from the same period of the previous year. While lower steel prices and historically weak oil and gas markets led to a five percent year-over-year drop in total revenue, the company’s gross profit was up 290 basis points to $4 million during the first three months of 2016. Broadwind is expected to announce second quarter fiscal results on July 28.
Since its founding in 2003, Broadwind has leaned on a talented team with decades of steel fabrication experience to grow into one of the largest producers of utility-scale steel wind energy towers in North America. All told, the company has built more than 2,000 wind towers since 2008, including the first 100-meter wind tower ever manufactured in the United States. In December 2015, Congress voted to pass a multi-year extension of the wind energy Production Tax Credit and Investment Tax Credit, effectively creating a runway for Broadwind to build on its established position in the North American wind tower market in the coming years.
For more information, visit www.bwen.com
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