By Anne Kauranen and Marta Frackowiak HELSINKI, Feb 4 (Reuters) - Finnish engineering group Wartsila missed fourth-quarter orders forecasts on Wednesday, dragged down by U.S. battery tariffs and
Wartsila's Fourth-Quarter Orders Fall Short, Yet Optimistic on Data Centres
Wartsila's Market Performance and Future Outlook
By Anne Kauranen and Marta Frackowiak
Impact of U.S. Battery Tariffs
HELSINKI, Feb 4 (Reuters) - Finnish engineering group Wartsila missed fourth-quarter orders forecasts on Wednesday, dragged down by U.S. battery tariffs and tougher competition in its energy storage business.
Investment Plans and Production Expansion
The company's shares fell around 3%, even though CEO Hakan Agnevall pointed to "ample opportunities" supplying engine-based power generation to new data centres - a fast-growing business as grid capacity strains under the AI-driven data boom.
"We have a very positive outlook on the market," he told Reuters, adding he saw opportunities both inside and outside the U.S., where the growth is fastest and which accounts for around 50% of the data centre market.
Still, fourth-quarter orders fell 11% year-on-year to 2.22 billion euros ($2.63 billion), below the 2.33 billion euros expected by analysts polled by Vara.
Agnevall said the drop reflected around 900 million euros of business divestments, while 50-60% U.S. tariffs on batteries had put "a wet blanket" on the country's energy storage market.
He added that sluggish electric vehicle sales had increased competition from other battery makers, but said energy storage remained relatively small at around 700 million euros of net sales, compared with 5.5 billion euros from the marine and energy divisions combined.
In its 2026 outlook, Wartsila said it expected demand in its energy and energy storage businesses to improve over the next 12 months, while demand in its marine division should remain broadly unchanged.
The company said it planned to invest about 140 million euros to expand production capacity by 35% at its Vaasa technology hub in Finland, with the new capacity due on stream in early 2028.
($1 = 0.8451 euros)
(Reporting by Anne Kauranen in Helsinki and Marta Frąckowiak in Gdansk. Editing by Milla Nissi-Prussak and Mark Potter)
