Wind turbine blade maker LM Glasfiber Group has announced that it will lay off up to 600 workers at plants in Europe and the United States. The Danish company plans to cut a fifth of its domestic workforce - 450 employees - and to close one of its two blade plants in Little Rock, Arkansas, with the loss of 150 jobs.

Lunderskov-based LM Glasfiber blamed the global financial crisis, which has led to a slump in sales. The firm experienced a flurry of cancelled or postponed orders in recent weeks after clients were unable to get financing for its project.

Despite this, the company stressed it is confident in the long-term outlook for the wind turbine business. It still has the capacity to manufacture blades up to 61.5 metres long in Little Rock.

The job losses in Arkansas came as a big shock as LM Glasfiber only began producing its polyester and fibreglass mill blades in Little Rock in February. In October, the company inaugurated a new North American headquarters and a second Little Rock plant, promising to employ 1,000 in the city over the next five years.

The company's first plant in Little Rock will close by late March. Some 60 workers will transition to the newer facility, leaving warehousing and some sub-assembly work at the first site.

A local news report quoted Randy Fox, the company's vice-president and North American general manager: "This is an economic crisis, not a problem with the Little Rock plant. Things have changed pretty significantly in the last couple of months for us."

Early last year, his firm had around 1,000 orders which, it said, would have kept the local operations occupied till the end of 2009. The company also has plants in Fargo, North Dakota, and Gaspé, Quebec.

Meanwhile, the company's northern Europe general manager Richard Andrew Bevan blamed the lay-offs at subsidiary LM Glasfiber of Lunderskov, Denmark, on customers delaying wind turbine plans for lack of capital due to the financial crisis.

European analysts warned that the wind power market will face a stagnant year in 2009 and LM Glasfiber has suffered from overcapacity. The company has 13 production units and employs 6,000 in nine countries, including India and China.

In late 2008, LM Glasfiber launched a turbine blade plant in Goleniów, Poland, its third in northern Europe. The facility employs 250 and supplies blades for turbine builder Nordex of Norderstedt, Germany. The plant can make blades up to 60 metres long.