Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to our first quarter fiscal year 2021 presentation that corresponds to the October-December quarter. Before we start, let me draw your attention to our disclaimer on page two. The annual release presentation will be conducted by our CEO, Andreas Nauen, and our CFO, Beatriz Puente. We will finish with a Q&A session, for which we will take your questions over the phone. With this, let me hand over to our CEO, Andreas Nauen. Andreas?
Yeah. Good morning to everyone, and thanks for joining our call this morning. It's a little special for four reasons. The first, it's the first time that we do it together with our new CFO, Beatriz Puente. I'm very glad to have Beatriz on board since the 1st of December. Welcome, Beatriz. The second reason why it's special, we do it for the first time completely virtual. I'm in Hamburg, Beatriz is in Madrid. The reason is, of course, our very strict COVID-19 protocols, which have helped us a lot so far for our operations, but also for protecting our people. Therefore, we will also continue on that path. Special also, that we had a very good start into the year, operationally and financially.
The fourth reason why it's a little different than normal is because we already communicated our key numbers in the ad hoc message on last Sunday. Nevertheless, we will hopefully use the next 60 minutes very productively, explain to you how we started the year, and answer all your questions. The key messages I would like to take in the sequence of time, so how do they affect our business over time from short to long term? You see that on page four. On the short term, clearly this quarter, we had a solid start to the year. The revenue is as expected. We have a good profitability with an EBIT of more than 5%. We have a continued strong funding position, and operationally also, especially in offshore and service, we continue to be well on track. We clearly had a good start into the year.
Which brings me to point two, our turnaround plan. We talked already about this at the CMD, where we introduced the key elements. Step by step, we are now implementing them under the umbrella of the LEAP program. Two examples are here already listed, and I will come to more in a few minutes. We continue to consolidate our onshore capacity. We started a while back, as you all know, in Denmark, in India. We had already a first closure in Spain. Now on January 11th, we announced the closure of two further factories. Also under the leadership of Lars Krogsgaard, who joined us as CEO for onshore on November 1st, we continue also to simplify the onshore organization. The program is in place and the implementation is going well.
This covers now the short term Q1 and our turnaround plan, and next, future of our core business. Renewables continue to see an extremely strong momentum, you can see that in Europe, Japan, U.K., and the U.S., you can see this everywhere. We believe that SGRE is well-positioned, and the indicators why we believe that is our order backlog in total, our offshore pipeline close to 10 GW, our offshore positioning for the large and exciting auctions to come, but also the order entry for Q1 and the steep increase in the 5.X orders that confirm that also in onshore, we are on track. This shows we are also building the foundation for the future. Our current work goes beyond this.
We're also building the long-term future by positioning SGRE as one of the leaders in the renewable industry by making sustainability more and more core of our activities beyond just making wind turbines. Also driving the long-term future by being a frontrunner in the hydrogen business. Just an example from last week, we generated the first green hydrogen in our test plant in Brande. Important for me is that we address the short term, but at the same time, we build the long-term future of SGRE. With that introduction, I would like to come to page five. We all know that the turnaround in onshore is key for a strong SGRE. Therefore, I'd like to spend a few minutes on that page. We already introduced at the CMD several focus areas, profit over volume and a balanced risk.
We get the orders we want, and the Q1 order entry confirms that we are on a good path. We also said that we would introduce leading technology. The prototype for the 5.X is under installation, and until now, including a recent order in Brazil, we have already achieved 2.3 GW of new orders. Supply chain complexity, we have done another step by the recent announcement, but also other examples show that we are well on track, like in the new blade factory that we have in Vagos in Portugal, we already made more than 100 blades less than eight months after we started the production. Also project execution and the optimized organization, also there we progress. I also would like to highlight and make it clear by no means are we done with the turnaround of onshore.
There are many more steps to follow, but at least we have a good start, good plan, and we are on track in the right direction. We go beyond onshore and look at sustainability, ESG, environmental, social, and governance. Also here, just this week we got further confirmation that we do the right things. What I'm personally very proud of is the progress on diversity and inclusion. For the second year, we have been included in the Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index with an even better score than last year. Clearly also in diversity and inclusion and with our strategy, we have clear actions and progress. Also another element. Only this week it was announced that we are part of a blade recycling project, which is also very important for the sustainable future of wind.
If you go beyond that also, external rating to be number four of 114 in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index is also a good sign for our progress. I then would like to draw your attention to page eight, which is the commercial activity order entry this quarter. After a fantastic Q1 last year, we also had a good start, especially for onshore this year. We have a stable order entry in onshore and offshore, and service are clearly driven by the volatile offshore profile. Large projects last year, but for me that is not of any concern, because we are well-positioned in many offshore negotiations when we expect to get the orders in the coming quarters. If I just go beyond the current quarter, also, our backlog shows that we are on a good path. Our backlog increased year- on- year by 7%.
Important that also this growth comes from our solid performance offshore and service. You see that in the third part of the graphs. Also we have a good regional distribution. Important for this year to notice is that 90% of the midpoint guidance revenue is already covered, and as we all know, offshore is covered, and I'm also confident that onshore and service can fill their remaining small gaps. After the SGRE order entry overview, I would like to go one level deeper into the onshore order entry in here, shown in megawatts on page five. One thing that is of major concern always is the ASP. As you can see in the lower part of the graph, it remains stable and of course, influenced by the usual ups and downs due to scope, mix, and region.
Even though the order entry goes down a little, that doesn't concern me. It's actually confirmation that our profit over volume strategy works. APAC is down as we expected it to be due to the slow activity in India. On the very positive side, the large turbines with more than 4 GW are about 82% of all of our onshore order entry, and 1.1 GW of that, the 5.X alone. That is important for me and for onshore. The new direction for onshore works. We get the orders we want and we need. We will continue to drive our profit over volume strategy. From onshore, I would like to move on page 10 to offshore, our major growth driver. Our future position offshore is determined by three market segments over time. First, of course, our order backlog. We have 6.1 GW.
You can see this in the chart, but also in the map. From the Netherlands, France, U.K., Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Taiwan, we are covered globally. Second, our strong pipeline with a total of 9.3 GW, the gray bubbles in the map. The USA alone with 4.4 GW, the U.K., France, and ending in the Far East with Taiwan and Japan. These 9.3, I'm very confident, will turn into firm orders over time. The third, but by far the biggest segments are the upcoming auctions. In Q4 and in 2021, we see offshore auctions of 25 GW coming up, that is, of course, a key priority for us to best position SGRE for all these auctions together with our clients. Finally, the commercial activity for service. A few key highlights.
We see a 17% growth in our order backlog, mainly driven by EMEA, which is again offshore. Also the Senvion acquisition that we concluded about one year ago supports that growth. Another example, we had a 10-year long-term service contract in LATAM. Even though the order entry activity in Q1 was relatively low, as I mentioned already, driven by the offshore ups and downs, we are on a good path as also the book-to-bill ratios and service shows. After describing the SGRE business, I would like to go on page 12 to the global market situation. Just in Q1, just in the last three months, we have seen extremely important steps for our industry. First and foremost, of course, the U.S. election, which will have a very positive outcome for the U.S. market, we believe in onshore and offshore.
In Europe, it is important to mention here clearly the o ffshore wind strategy that was published mid-November with around 300 GW by 2040. If you do the simple math, that's in 20 years, that's 15 GW every year of offshore in Europe. Also the U.K., Green Revolution plan that was published also in November, with the aim of 40 GW in offshore by 2040. Another two GW in average every year. Also all the new Asian markets like Japan, South Korea, also they have big ambitions and they become more and more concrete. Clearly offshore, but wind in total has a huge global momentum. With this look into the global market, I would like to hand over to Beatriz for the Q1 numbers. Now to you, Beatriz.
Thank you, Andreas. Good morning to all of you, and thank you for joining Siemens Gamesa Q1 results presentation today. This is Beatriz Puente speaking. As you know, per Andreas' introduction, I joined the company as CFO at the end of last year, and it's a pleasure to stand and present very solid Q1 results. This is the first time we meet virtually, and I'm certainly looking forward to meeting you personally in the coming months. Let me cover the Q1 financial highlights. Starting on page 14, you have the consolidated group figures for the quarter that confirms that the company has started with very good numbers. EUR 2.3 billion in revenues, up 15% quarter-on-quarter, supported by offshore and services, but still impacted by the pandemic, and especially in the execution of onshore projects, and impacted by currency translation in this quarter.
We will get into more detail in the next slide. EBIT pre PPA and before integration and restructuring costs amounted to EUR 121 million versus a loss of EUR 136 million in Q1 2020. EBIT margin, also pre PPA and before integration and restructuring cost of 5.3%, a 12 percentage point improvement when compared to Q1 2020, thanks to a continued strong performance of offshore and in services. The quarter profitability also benefit from the final delivery of projects that also hindered our performance last year, and from service productivity gains and a higher reduction in failure rates in offshore products. As it was disclosed in our Capital Markets Day back in August, the company has an Integration and Restructuring Program in place for the coming three years. Integration and restructuring costs in this quarter amounted to EUR 47 million.
The company has incurred in circa EUR 20 million of restructuring costs, mainly corresponding to ongoing restructuring in India and in Europe. Both programs already started last year. On integration costs, the amount was EUR 27 million, mainly IT, corporate processes, and a small amount due to integration of Senvion and Vagos. I would like to highlight that as we will roll over the restructuring plan and complete our IT programs, you will see integration and restructuring costs increasing in the coming quarters in line with the guidance that we have communicated for the year. As Andreas mentioned, we already announced further capacity consolidation measures in January, and the financial impact will be booked in Q2. Reported net income amounted to EUR 11 million, a significant turnaround of the Q1 numbers, net loss of EUR 174 million.
The reported net income includes the impact, net of taxes, of the PPA and integration and restructuring costs amounted to EUR 77 million in total. Moving to the balance sheet and cash flow key metrics, I will highlight CapEx of EUR 140 million, split between product development, roughly EUR 39 million, manufacturing capacity, tools and equipment of EUR 101 million. The combined nacelle blade manufacturing facility in France remains our main capacity investment right now. More than 50% of the total CapEx has been invested in offshore product development and manufacturing capacity to be able to tap the market growth. As Andreas mentioned earlier, offshore prospects seems to be getting better day by day, with 25 GW between what was auctioned in this quarter and what is expected in calendar 2021, for which we are closely collaborating with our clients and very well-positioned.
Working capital of EUR -1.7 billion, roughly negative 17.4% of the last 12 months' revenues, remains at a very efficient level. It also reflects a strong improvement delivered last year. The net position of the company at the end of December amounted to EUR 476 million. Moving to the revenue performance on page 15 of the presentation. Group revenues grew 15% year-on-year, supported by offshore and services, and as I already mentioned, impacted by currency translation. Revenues at constant rates would have amounted to EUR 2.5 billion, up 21% quarter-on-quarter. Most of the currency impact comes from the depreciation of the US dollar, the Brazil real, followed by the Mexican peso, Indian rupee, and Russian ruble. That has impact on onshore and service revenues. Onshore revenues reached EUR 1.1 billion, down 5% in the period.
Expected growth in the quarter was impacted by the pandemic COVID-19, which has delayed project execution, especially in the U.S. market. We expect project execution to accelerate, especially during the second half of the year, and more on the Q4 of this year. Offshore revenues reached €838 million, up 62% in this quarter. This growth was supported by the manufacturing activity that fourfold in the period to 734 MW in the quarter, from 185 MW in Q1 2020. It's important to highlight that this volume and revenue growth should not be extrapolated for the coming years. As you are all aware, manufacturing activity in the first quarter of last year was depressed by the ramp-up of the manufacturing of our 8 MW turbine in Cuxhaven.
Service revenues reached EUR 396 million, up 8% in the period, including the integration of the acquired European service operations of Senvion that has been partially offset by FX impact. Onshore manufacturing activity, volumes of 1,744 MW, practically flat on the period, with higher volumes in APAC up 26%, America up 5%, and lower volumes in EMEA, down 24% in the quarter. Moving to slide 16, EBIT pre PPA and before integration and restructuring costs amounted to EUR 121 million in the period. You have the bridge. The strong EBIT performance in Q1 was supported by offshore and services. Our wind turbine division has moved back into profitability with the EBIT margin pre PPA and integration restructuring costs of 1%.
On one hand, we have completed the projects that faced very challenging conditions last year. On the other hand, offshore revenues have increased and also with higher contribution to the overall wind turbine revenues. We are not seeing yet a minimal impact from the restructuring actions, it will be more visible as the year progresses, and mainly in 2022 and 2023. Service margin of 25.9%. The service margin, as I mentioned, benefits from a strong reduction in offshore turbine failure rates and productivity gains of cost efficiencies that materialize in this quarter. In Q1, we signed new contracts with some of our service suppliers, we also performed the standard product assessment. This tailwind we are experiencing this quarter, which is a higher reduction of wind turbine failure rates, is not expected to continue in the same magnitude in the coming quarters.
Therefore, this margin cannot be extrapolated to the following quarters. Saying that, still service margin is expected to end the year circa 20%. Very good margins. This is a clear sign of the strength of our offshore product platforms and supports our view of our leadership in offshore market, also is a proof of our continuous commitment to deliver productivity gains and lower external costs on a yearly basis. Finally, as a result of the performance of both wind turbine generators and also service, the group margin reached 5.3% in the period, from negative 6.8% in Q1 2020. The main contributors to the positive performance, as I have mentioned, is more volume from offshore, productivity gains that has offset pricing pressure that now are included in our LEAP program, and also completion of our 20 challenging projects.
Moving to slide 17, our net debt position stood at EUR 476 million at the end of Q1, an increase of EUR 427 million in the net debt position since the end of last year. The net debt variation is very much related to the performance or evolution of the working capital. The profitability improvement in the quarter led to EUR 151 million in gross operating cash flow, and the working capital variation of EUR 400 million. This is mainly driven by the lower level of commercial activity in, of course, Q1. The activity planning, which is more common in the second half, and also the normalization of the large negative working capital by year-end 2020, that also with the payments, as you see in the slide of trade payables, of more than EUR 500 million. EUR 140 million in cash, as I mentioned, linked to the very large offshore potential that we foresee.
Finally, EUR 24 million in uses of Adwen provisions. This is very important that the group is back to profitability at operating level. We might see some further normalization of working capital in the year, but for me, you know, cash is a clear priority for the group. We will continue to monitor a very strict cost control, focus on working capital initiatives that we'll have, and also enhance liquidity. Moving to page 18, the company, it's very important and it's a key competitive advantage of this company, has a very solid funding position with EUR 4.4 billion in trade lines, out of which EUR 442 million in short term and EUR 740 million due in 2023, and more than EUR 2 billion in long-term available lines until 2026. Therefore, nearly more than two-thirds are long-term maturity.
We have drawn EUR 1.3 billion. We have, as of the end of last year, December, EUR 1.5 billion in cash. Therefore, the company total available liquidity amounted to EUR 4.6 billion. This strong liquidity, as I said, reinforces our competitive position, especially in the offshore market, allowing the group to take the required investment and commercial decisions to benefit from the market growth. After this sound set of results for the beginning of the year, as you have seen in our press release and our presentation, we reiterate and confirm our guidance for this year. Revenues between EUR 10.2 billion and EUR 11.2 billion, and EBIT pre PPA and integration and restructuring costs are margin between 3% to 5%. After covering the key financial metrics for the period, let me hand over to Andreas to present the company outlook, and then we'll be happy to answer any questions you may have. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Beatriz. I would like to have an outlook into the long-term future of wind. As we all know, the real excitement and growth in renewables is probably still to come. You see that on page 20, with 60 GW of installations in 2019, and dependent on which scenario you use, you get either 250 or maybe close to 300 GW every year in 2030. Doubling our whole industry four times, and also by the mid-2020s, which you can see on the right side, we see a strong increase, especially in offshore, which doubles or triples, but also overall, the wind market grows by 5%. This is, of course, driven by the huge political and financial support that the wind industry and the renewables industry in general gets at the moment, which you can also see on page 21.
The grants in Europe that total up to around EUR 750 million, divided into grants and loans, of course, are a big support for our industry. Our task at SGRE is to play a vital role in driving these recovery programs and foster the new build-up renewables in the future. I would like to end with an exciting example where we at SGRE prepare ourselves for that future, or might be that we even help creating it, which is our fully integrated hydrogen offshore turbine, which you see on page 22. It is a five-year development project. We expect to have a full-scale offshore demonstrator in the mid-2020s. It is a project that we do together with Siemens Energy. Thus, we can drive the synergies between Siemens Gamesa and Siemens Energy.
It will be based on a 40 MW turbine, and instead of producing electrons, this turbine would then produce green hydrogen molecules. This open ups completely new opportunities for Siemens Gamesa for the classical offshore business, but of course, also for our service business. That does not mean that the world will completely go into hydrogen. I'm sure there will be a mix of electricity generation and hydrogen, but we would like to be prepared for both. Thanks for your attention, and now I hand back to you for your questions.
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. The Q&A session starts now. If you wish to ask a question, please press zero one on your telephone keypad. We kindly request that you limit your questions to one per turn. Please be informed that in order to assure audio quality, we recommend that all questions are asked from landlines. Thank you. The first question comes from Supriya Subramanian from UBS. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good morning. Thank you for taking my question. I have two questions to start with. One is on the margin performance in the quarter itself. You had mentioned that there were certain benefits coming through from the reversal of provisions, as well as, sort of low maintenance activity. Is there any quantification for this that you could share? Sort of related to this itself, do we expect this to recur in or continue in the coming quarters? Does the 3%-5% margin guidance include the one-time benefits, or is that sort of on a core operational basis? My second question is related to the 5.X platform. If you could share any details on the traction that you are seeing with this platform, especially in the U.S. and European markets, which you have said that earlier you had the wrong platform for those markets.
Are you seeing a regain, let's say, in traction in these markets? Also, any indication on the margins of this platform versus the previous? I know some of your peers have said that for their new platforms, they could potentially make 3%-5% higher gross margins. Any indications for that also would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
Yeah, thank you very much for the question. Maybe I answer the second first, and Beatriz, if you could take over then the first part of the question.
Sure.
The second part of the question was around the 5.X. Indeed, we see quite some progress there, especially in two regions. The orders that we also have announced to the market, many of them are in Northern Europe. This is also a confirmation of our plan because that machine, especially for the early applications, was dedicated for the Northern European market. Therefore, you see a number of project announcement that we've done especially in Scandinavia. Another market where we expect that machine to be quite successful is the German market that is slowly recovering on the onshore side. Also there, the interest in the 5.X is pretty high, even though we haven't received large orders for that machine yet. That has, for me, simply due to the time of introduction and going through the project cycles.
The other region where it's quite successful, and that is confirmed also by the recent order, is Brazil. Brazil is driven by local content requirements at auctions. That machine has been quite successful in a number of projects now that we have already booked. The production for the first one will start in the course of 2021. Clearly these are the two regions. For the U.S. market, you addressed that. We still have to see, especially with the now new momentum that we politically see in the U.S., how we best can place this turbine in the, what we call nameplate part of the market. With regards to the margin expectation, it's clear, like with all new and larger turbines that we introduce, we do this because we expect a higher margin from that machine.
The real result of that will only be seen in 2022 when that machine becomes a major share of our production, but not yet in 2021. Now back to you, Beatriz, on the Q1 EBIT question.
Yes. Thank you, Supriya, for your question. As I mentioned during my presentation, and hopefully on the activity report on page one, this is a normal course of business. With the operations of the service business, the levels of ordinary provisions has been evaluated to adjust then both to the lower failure rates of wind turbines, especially offshore, and the lower service cost resulting in those productivity improvements. We have highlighted that, as I mentioned, the 25.9% of the margin service, of course, you cannot extrapolate for the coming quarters. That's the reason we also have included in our guidance that we see more the service normal expected annual margin to cut 20%. Thank you.
The final issue, you asked whether that is included in the three to five. Yes, it is.
Yeah. Sure. Thank you.
Thank you. The next question comes from Gael de-Bray from Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thanks very much. Good morning, everybody. Could you talk a bit more about how you intend to mitigate the recent rise in steel cost and freight cost? How are you dealing with basically what's likely to become a scarcity in terms of transportation? Are you pushing for higher prices? On a net basis overall, how do you see that impacting your margins going forward, and how much of this is already embedded in the margin guidance? That's a big question number one, I should say. The second question is about the repowering potential. If you could talk about this and how significant it could be for you potentially in the next few years. Thank you.
Good. The effect of the commodity prices. We see this driven by two, how do I say, areas at the moment. One is of course, logistics cost. For 2021, we do not expect that this has a major influence. The same we also see for the steel and copper price increases that we saw, especially the last few weeks. I think we also have to be a little careful there and first wait whether this is a continued effect or whether this is just a spike, as we have seen it in some of the commodity markets also over the past few years. For 2021, we are relatively well-protected against that, because on steel, we have ordered most of our components anyway, and thus by operational ordering hedged us against that.
In the long run, we will, of course, try to see that we pass on any increases in the material prices if they continue to be of a sustainable nature to our customers, especially when we have long leading projects like in offshore. That is an opportunity. In the shorter cycle, onshore business is slightly different.
Thank you. The next question comes from Vivek Midha from Citi. Please go ahead.
Hi, everyone. Thanks very much for taking my question. Yes, just following on from that last one. In terms of latest color on turbine pricing developments going forward, both onshore and offshore, and what sort of developments are you seeing? Secondly, on the 2021 guidance, given the Q1 bit, could you maybe talk around the scenarios embedded in the low end of the full-year margin guidance? Is it fair to say this is a precaution? It's still far too early in the year to be thinking about anything like that. Thank you very much.
Okay. I will try to answer the first question, which is around turbine prices. Beatriz, if you could then address the second part of the question-
Sure
-which refers to the low end of the guidance. Turbine prices. As we have shown in our presentation, the prices for onshore turbines have stabilized, even though we have quite some effects also from introducing larger turbines, which generally should drive down the prices a little, but you can still see, and for onshore, we have quite a good statistical basis. We have now, again, stabilized. This is clearly seen in the market and also in our order entry. That is our view on onshore. On offshore, I'm not so sure whether these average prices make that much sense in offshore, especially as they vary so much dependent on current global region, Taiwan versus U.S. versus Europe, and also because we introduced a new generation of turbines with the 14 MW.
The main reason for introducing the 14 MW was, of course, to introduce new technology which offers a higher margin potential. This is clearly what we see in all the contracts that we are currently negotiating and also signing for the 14 MW, that this was the right step forward to be well-placed in the even now more and more competitive offshore market. This turbine is clearly well-positioned. Beatriz-
Yes.
-if you could say something about the low end of the guidance.
Yes. Thank you, Vivek, for the question. I answer with your question as well, confirm that it's still early in the year to narrow the guidance. The positive thing is that we have started with a very solid Q1 which is very important as you know for the whole year. As we go per year, we'll have more visibility. There is still uncertainty of everything, COVID, but we feel comfortable with the range. Of course, as far as we go through the year, we might narrow that range. As per today, it's still early, but very confident with the guidance.
Thanks very much.
Thank you. The next question comes from Akash Gupta from JPMorgan. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Yes, hi. Good morning, everybody. I have two questions, please. My first question is on energy storage, which is a hot topic in the market these days.
I think Siemens Wind Power in the past was working on a thermal storage technology for past many, many years, and I think you have some pilot project which was under operation in Germany. The question I have for you is that can you tell us where do you stand in commercializing this technology and given the need for thermal or steam turbines, if this could be another area to jointly market with your parent, Siemens Energy? The second question I have is on offshore. Clearly, we see you are incrementally more positive on offshore, and we can also see increase in offshore activity in the market. The question I have is on the U.S. market, where you have 4 GW plus in pipeline, and given the new administration is talking about local jobs, shall we expect you to invest in the U.S. footprint in the coming years?
Maybe on the same topic, would this be similar to what you are investing in France? Maybe to complete the full circle, will that additional CapEx for U.S. footprint is embedded on your medium-term outlook, where you expect CapEx to fall to 5% by 2023? Thank you.
Yeah. Thank you, Akash. Good morning. Nice to hear your voice. First, you asked about energy storage. Indeed, we developed, Siemens Gamesa, an energy storage technology that we are testing here quite successfully in Hamburg. After the usual technical ramp-up difficulties when you test that new technology, that test run is working technically very nice. Now we come to the second part or the real part of your question, which is the commercialization of that technology. Clearly, we all see that energy storage is needed if you want to run whole electrical grids on renewables. What we've not seen so far is, especially for this technology, a commercial application. We had several projects which we looked at here in Europe. In the end, at least under the current regimes, it's commercially a very difficult call.
That does not mean that it will never fly, but clearly, under the current conditions, it's not easy to apply. The second thing is also that it would fit very well with fossil power stations. To connect it directly to a wind turbine is not the immediate technical solution. A combination with existing fossil power stations might be of interest, and this is what we are currently exploring ourselves, and we have quite some requests from customers that are interested in that technology. Also, Akash, you addressed it yourself, there might also be a potential that we do something together with Siemens Energy. Clearly, our first step was first, let's make it work. It works now, and now we have to find the right route to commercialization. Still too early to say. Akash, you asked me about the offshore U.S. market.
Clearly, we had a good start there with the 4.4 GW. More and more auctions are, of course, coming, and we are participating in them together with our clients. There is already now a huge expectation on local jobs, and we all know that. It's unfortunately, I would say, not U.S. jobs, but it's even in many cases, state-by-state jobs, and therefore, part of our project that we do with Dominion in Virginia will also be the creation of local economic benefit. At the same time, other states are also looking at it, and there we are currently exploring how can we best localize certain equipment, because in the end, we have to strike the balance with being very competitive and at the same time, creating local jobs.
It remains, of course, to be seen with the additional momentum that the new administration will put into that, how will that play out? Until now, we focus on a blade facility in Virginia and then potentially equipment like towers that we don't produce ourselves, where we then could localize together with partners. That is at the moment the direction we drive our U.S. offshore business with regards to localization. I hope that answers your question.
Thank you. The next question comes from Sean McLoughlin from HSBC. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Good morning. First, a question on COVID. If you could quantify the impact of COVID. You say it's still slowing down movement of people and goods. It's impacting onshore project execution. Just a number and maybe how that compares to previous quarters and what view you have into the current quarter on disruption. Secondly, on the onshore restructuring process, it looks like you've made good progress. There've been a number of factory shutdowns. I'm just wondering how far down that process you are and what are the next steps in your mind along this journey?
Thank you, Sean, for the question. First I address the question that I unfortunately forgot to answer or missed to answer to one of the previous callers. That was about the repowering potential. Honestly speaking, we don't differentiate anymore between repowering and new build. It used to be a very separated and dedicated market, in light of the large opportunities that are there, we at the moment don't separate out the repowering market, neither in Europe nor in the U.S. Of course, there are then special projects, I don't have a number at hand to say what of our market expectation on our own order entries is exactly repowering and what is completely new build from scratch. I simply don't know, I don't think the market is that large. With regards to COVID, maybe Beatriz, if you want to answer-
Yes
-the question on the number impact. Operationally, we had some effect also when we have a balance of plant, sometimes to be done by our customers or on the logistics side. It was clearly far, far less than last year. Where in the middle of the year, Q2 and Q3, we had a huge impact, and we explained that in various previous calls in countries like India and from China, first with the supply chain, and then later also in Mexico. This has clearly stabilized. We have stabilized our operations. We know how to deal with it, and also how to move people across the countries. Of course, it's not as easy as it used to be with quarantine rules, but generally, we have stabilized the operation pretty well. Beatriz, if you-
Yes. Regarding the impact of per se COVID-19 is low single digit in EUR terms in Q1. Also, as Andreas said, it's also affecting the activity, therefore, because lowering our margins due to the low absorption. The team is working hard to mitigate those impacts.
Sean, you had a third question, which was on onshore restructuring and what comes next. First, we have to complete the activities that we just started. We decided to close one of the factories in India, and this is simply due to the local regulations, and not easily done. It's progressing well, but still it's not complete. The same is currently ongoing for the two Spanish factories. We announced it only a few weeks ago. We are currently negotiating with the unions and the workers' representatives, and that is clearly the next step, that we first complete what we just announced. I indicated also in my introduction, I called it the onshore organizational simplification. Lars Krogsgaard clearly decided to reorganize onshore with much more dedication to the regions.
This is then the next step, that we change the onshore organization into the future design that we've just released, and that was also communicated to our organization early in January. These are clearly the next steps that are there to come and to get completed first.
Thank you.
Thank you. The next question comes from Sebastian Griegel from Commerzbank. Please go ahead.
Yes, good morning, thanks for taking my questions. The first one is around the pipeline and offshore. Sorry about that. On the 9 GW you mentioned on the pipeline as such, and the 25 for the auctions for 2021. Can you give us a sense about the expected timing around the 9 GW, roughly speaking, for the auctions? How should we think about the regional distribution behind the 25 GW, with regard to the time span of those projects and the expected hit rate on these very projects.
Yeah.
The second area would be around the onshore business and the 5.X platform. You said that you are with the prototype up and running. When would you expect to start serial production on the turbine? What is the expected contribution from the platform in eventually 2021, if there's any, and how would that compare to 2022? When I look at the 50% share roughly in order intake in quarter one, that might be a good yardstick. If I may chip in a very quick one for the CFO, Beatriz. Hi, good morning. You are now about 60, 70 days in office. In which areas would you see the greatest room for improvement when looking at the company with a fresh eye and especially when it comes to working capital as one target area, as you said? Thanks.
Good. Sebastian, I try my best and I try to note down all the questions. I start with the pipeline for the 9 GW and when we do expect them. Of course, we expect them, as I mentioned also in my introduction, we expect the orders to come in 2021 and 2022. Maybe there's an outlier. I don't have the list completely in my head, but clearly in 2021 and 2022. Not all projects will come in these two years. The regional distribution you see in the map. You asked about the auction, the 25 GW, and clearly the largest and most important one is the upcoming CfD auction in the U.K. Our current expectation that this alone is around 10 GW.
The time spent for these 10 GW in the U.K., the very earliest chance for a project would be an installation in 2024, but that would already be a very ambitious time schedule, so the major chunk of that would come in 2025 and onwards. The other auctions, there we would really need to go then into detail. They are in the Netherlands. There's the Danish project. We have a Taiwanese auction that is in the mid-2020s, and we have France coming up with a gigawatt. In general, all of these projects that are currently auction out will be for 2025 and onwards, I would say. Maybe there's an outlier that I don't know at the moment, but you can assume most of them will be 2025 and onwards, not earlier. You asked me about the serial production of the 5.X.
First, just a small correction, maybe I didn't say that clearly. The 5.X is currently under installation, and we expect that it starts to operate in the next few weeks. It's not under operation yet. It's progressing well. The serial production for our first project will start in this quarter. We have a Swedish project called Skaftåsen, which was one of the earliest project that we signed, and we are really ramping up the serial production of that project in the first quarter. We also have then a second project that will also come right after Skaftåsen, also a Northern project. Of course, as you also indicated, the major chunk of the 5.X and the importance of the 5.X will be 2022.
This year, also due to the normal ramp-up that you have, it will not contribute big time to our profitability, simply due to the very innovative nature and ramp-up. I think, Beatriz, there was one question for you.
Yes. Thank you, Sebastian. I'm very happy to say that we have the key ingredients for success. We have a great sector, great company, very high talented management team, and I have to say that within my team, very high skill and talented finance team. With those ingredients, what do I see? As you said, maybe improvement, of course, there is always improvement in any single company. I will focus, as I said, now we have a new organization within the finance team, so all the finance functions are reported to me, also the CFOs of the company. We can work as one single team, which is key on the finance function. We're focusing on, of course, homogeneous processes, strengthen the internal control, and very important, as you said, cash. Cash is a priority for every company. For us, it's a key competitive advantage.
We have room, also, to even improve it, despite, of course, significant improvement that you have seen in the last two years. Our focus will be on, of course, cash collection, having higher visibility on cash flow generation of the company and the businesses, working on extension of payment terms for the company, a reduction of inventories that also can have a significant impact on our working capital. Last but not least, also asset management initiatives that we can generate also cash. Last but not least, a key priority for me is also, of course, investment grade of the company and also enhance liquidity. That will be the priority for the finance team. Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Thank you. The next question comes from Mark Freshney from Credit Suisse. Please go ahead.
Thank you for taking my questions. Firstly, on the GE patent claim, this is a strategy pursued by GE to protect its markets over many years. What is the risk to the ability for you to install your projects? Are we likely to see that patent claim in the U.K. High Court delay any Siemens Gamesa projects? Secondly, a question for Beatriz. Just to be clear about the one-off items that you mentioned in the pre-announcement on Sunday, it is solely these releases of provisions, which meant that the services margin was at 26% or 25.9% rather than 20%. I'm just looking to check that there's no other one-time credits running through the EBIT line this year. Thank you. Or this quarter. Thank you.
Good, Mark. Happy to answer the GE patent question. Even probably, I could quite live without it, but it's there. It doesn't bother us that much. You asked especially about whether it could delay any installations in the U.K., and our position is clearly, no, it cannot and it will not delay anything. We feel that we are very well-protected against this claim, and of course, we do the expected defense actions. For the time being, we clearly do not see that it has any effect on our operations or installations in the U.K. I think, Beatriz, back to you on the EBIT.
Yes, Mark. Yes. Thank you for the question. Yes, we confirm that it's ordinary course of business. We do it, as any other company need to improve the maintenance cost of the company, and we continue focus on that improvement. Therefore, it's a very good sign that the company lower the failure rates on our wind turbines and nothing else has been in Q1 affecting the profitability of the company.
Perfect. Thank you very much, Beatriz. Thank you.
I think we are coming to an end. Is there any final question that you would like to place?
Yes. We have a question from Fernando Lafuente, from Alantra Equities. Please go ahead.
Hello. Good morning. Just two quick ones. Well, first of all, Beatriz, welcome.
Thank you, Fernando.
Just two quick ones, as I was saying. The first one is on the performance of the revenues of the service division. Q1 last year was still a quarter without the impact of Senvion. Compared with the rest of the previous year, the rate of growth of services has decreased from over around 20% on average to 8%. What is the reason here for this reduction in growth considering that Q1 last year was not affected by Senvion? The second one is on the turbines margin. Basically, this quarter, the turbines division is making a margin of 1%. Is this sustainable going forward? Will turbines end the year with positive margin, EBIT margin? Thank you.
Thank you, Fernando. I will take the first question regarding services revenues. Why, when we have on Q1 the contribution of Senvion, the underlying is true, is lower revenue growth. The main reason for that is the FX impact that I mentioned before. The Q1 numbers of services has been impacted mainly for FX translation on the revenue side, mainly U.S. We foresee that will have an impact on the yearly basis. Senvion is on track, even better as per our expectations. It's only the impact of mainly that FX impact in U.S. We foresee that it's going to have a very good year.
I think the second question is turbine margins, Fernando. First, let's talk about offshore. We have a very solid plan for this year in offshore. We know exactly which turbines we will produce, this is now the 8 MW turbine that we are producing for about one year, more or less, quite stable. There, we expect it to be stable. The key question is, of course, how the onshore business now develops. I think the last year, we all know we were suffering quite a lot from these specials and negative effects on the Northern European pipeline. This is where we put our focus at the moment, that we get the onshore business stable and avoid such negative effects. I think if that continues, we also expect a good margin from the turbine side.
Overall, that is where it all ends up in, is that from all what we see at the moment, we can confirm that we will end up in the 3%-5% range of the guidance.
Okay. Thank you so much.
Fernando, just to follow up in that one and to give you comfort on the service revenue. It's mainly also when I mentioned U.S., it's also the lack in this quarter of a big repower contract that we have in Q1 last year. If you do the carve-out of taking out that FX impact still is single digit growth on Q1, so good performance of the service business.
Q1, sorry, the low single digit should be the like for like.
Like for like.
Excluding all the impacts, Senvion, FX, et cetera.
Yes. Senvion, FX.
Thank you.
Okay. I think that gets us to around exactly 10 o'clock. I would like to thank everyone for listening in, especially, of course, thanks to you, Beatriz, joining me for the first time. I think concluding it, we are, of course, glad that we had a solid start into the year. Clearly, we have still nine months to go and a lot of challenges, especially in the onshore business, still to tackle. On the other hand, it's good to have that good start into the year, we look forward to the next talks with you, many thanks for your questions. I wish you all a good and stay healthy day.
Thank you to everyone. Thanks, Andreas. I'm looking forward to next Q2 results. Stay safe. Thank you.