Orsted 'planning major job cuts' due to lack of projects
Leading developer of offshore wind farms has slashed its investment plans twice in last two years amid challenging market conditions
Troubled offshore wind giant Orsted is reportedly planning a major round of job cuts that could hit as soon as next week.
The Orsted website currently states that it has over 8,400 employees spread over 73 offices globally.
Orsted employees have reportedly already been told there will be a ‘right-sizing’ process. That comes after the Danish offshore wind giant slashed its 2030 investment plans twice in the last two years.
Orsted is currently building offshore wind projects in markets including Germany, Taiwan and the US. But once work is completed on those and others in the next few years, its project pipeline will thin out significantly.
This has not been helped by Errboe’s decision in May to pull the plug on the Contract for Difference that Orsted secured for its 2.4GW Hornsea 4 project in the UK North Sea, which he put down to challenging economic conditions.
Orsted was by then working against a backdrop of Donald Trump’s return to the White House in the US and beginning his war on the country’s offshore wind sector, to which the developer is highly exposed.
Orsted was forced into a rights issue in August as it was not able to find a buyer for a stake in its Sunrise Wind project in the US, due to Trump’s hostility.
The developer was rocked again by the Trump administration issuing a stop-work order on its Revolution Wind project, although it has won an injunction lifting that order until the case is heard on its merits.