Sinovel sees full-year loss as wind-turbine orders slow

Sinovel Wind Group Co. (601558), China’s third-biggest maker of wind turbines, forecast a full-year net loss after orders slowed and customer payments were held back.

“Clients delayed payables, increasing bad-debt provisions and finance expenses,” Beijing-based Sinovel said today in a filing to the Shanghai stock exchange. Wind developers also installed fewer turbines, it said.

China has slowed construction of wind farms to ease power-grid congestion, raising competition among equipment producers to secure orders. Sinovel is also under investigation by the securities regulator over a 2011 accounting error, which it said in August hampered its ability to collect payments and expand.

The company reported a net loss of 699 million yuan ($115 million) in the first nine months of the year, widening from a 269 million-yuan loss a year earlier, according to the statement. Sales tumbled 45 percent to 2.01 billion yuan.

China, the world’s biggest wind market, may install 13 gigawatts of wind farms this year, 6 percent less than in 2012, Bloomberg New Energy Finance estimates show. Its largest turbine makers by installed capacity are Xinjiang Goldwind Science & Technology Co. and Guodian United Power Technology Co.

Sinovel declined 0.4 percent to close at 4.93 yuan in Shanghai trading before the results were released. The stock has dropped 6.3 percent this year.