By Eric Min

Vestas, the world’s biggest wind turbine manufacturer, said Monday that it would shut down a factory in Hohhot, China, to "phase out" the production of its kilowatt platform because of projected low market demand.

According to the National Business Daily, the termination of the productionat the Hohhot factory, including the V52-850kilowatt and V60-850 kilowatt turbines, would come into force over the summer. This would result in 300 to 350 layoffs.

The Danish turbine manufacturer said it was shutting the plant because it predicted little growth in the kilowatt turbine sector. As the world’s biggest turbine market, “the China wind market has peaked”, Bloomberg said.

“On the basis of thorough internal analyses, Vestas projects a low market demand for the kilowatt platform in the coming years,” it said in a statement, which added that the company “remains firmly committed to China and has confidence in China's long-term growth in the wind energy industry”.

The statement said the closure would lead to annual savings of around 10 million euros ($12.54 million), and the company would have about 2600 staff in China, spreading across two production bases in Tianjin and Xuzhou and two offices in Beijing and Shanghai.

The decision followed an announcement on Friday to drop plans to build a factory in Britain to make large turbines that would have created 2,000 direct and indirect jobs, Reuters said.

Its shares, which have collapsed from a historic high of about 700 Danish crowns ($120) in 2008 before the global financial crisis struck, were flat at 30.34 crowns at 1329 GMT. They flirted with a year low of 29.03 crowns following the announcement of the Chinese factory closure.