Four Vietnam-built offshore substations head to Poland, totaling 16,000 tons built simultaneously

Four offshore substations built in Vietnam have left the country bound for “Baltica 2,” an offshore wind farm under construction in the Baltic Sea off Poland. PTSC Mechanical & Construction (PTSC M&C, a subsidiary of PetroVietnam Technical Services Corporation, PTSC) held a load-out completion and sail-away ceremony on September 12; two of the four substations have already set sail for Europe, while the remaining two have finished loading onto barges and are awaiting departure. The combined weight of the substations and their module support structures is approximately 16,000 tons, with each substation rated at 375MW. Together, the four substations will handle power collection and transmission for a wind farm in the 1,500MW class. PetroTimes states at the outset that this is the first milestone in which offshore wind structures manufactured in Vietnam have reached Europe.

Eight units launched over a 43-day load-out, with two already headed to Europe

The ceremony was held on the afternoon of September 12 at the PTSC Energy Industry and Technical Logistics Center in Ho Chi Minh City. According to the PetroTimes article, representatives from Ørsted, Semco Maritime, PTSC, and PTSC M&C, along with subcontractors, suppliers, and the project team, took part.

What was launched was a total of eight structures — the four substation topsides and four module support structures — and the load-out was a continuous 43-day operation. To Ngoc Thu, President (Giám đốc) of PTSC M&C, said that completing the topsides of the four Baltica 2 offshore substations in Vung Tau is a major milestone and the result of PGE, Ørsted, Semco Maritime, and PTSC M&C working together effectively. Ulrik Lange, Ørsted’s Baltica 2 Project Director, explained that the four substations are among the most complex components in the project and will serve as the “heart” of the wind farm, receiving power from the turbines and sending it to shore. Keith Taylor, a Semco Maritime board member, said that building the four OSS units simultaneously and on schedule is an achievement worth recognizing. At the ceremony, Ørsted presented PTSC and Semco Maritime with a Health and Safety Award.

Each substation is 375MW, gathering 1,500MW collected from 107 turbines

Both PetroTimes and The Investor put Baltica 2's capacity at approximately 1,500MW, its configuration at 107 wind turbines and 4 offshore substations, and its start of operations in the fourth quarter of 2027. Each substation is 375MW and serves to gather the power generated by the turbines and send it to shore.

In Ørsted's announcement dated May 11, 2026, the turbines are Siemens Gamesa 14-222 units at 14MW each, with 107 to be installed. 107 units times 14MW comes to 1,498MW, which closely matches the substation side's 4 units times 375MW, or 1,500MW. The approximately 16,000-ton figure is likewise not the weight of a single substation but the combined total of the four topsides and four jacket foundations. In the same announcement, Ørsted states that once complete, the output will be equivalent to the electricity use of about 2.5 million Polish households.

About 16,000 tons across the 4 substations and their foundations, with the electrical systems procured and installed by Semco Maritime

The EPC contract was awarded in June 2023 to a consortium of Semco Maritime and PTSC M&C. According to Semco Maritime’s announcement of June 13, 2023, the company leads the consortium, and the contract covers design, procurement, construction, and commissioning. The division of roles within the consortium is also described in the announcement: Semco Maritime is responsible for the design, procurement, and installation of the high- and medium-voltage equipment, SCADA, and auxiliary systems, while PTSC M&C manufactures the four offshore substations at its yard in Vung Tau. The announcement names ISC Consulting Engineers and Hyundai Electric as the two main subcontractors.

The PetroTimes article defines PTSC M&C’s scope of work as manufacturing, finishing installation, and onshore commissioning within Vietnam. The clients are Ørsted and PGE; according to Ørsted’s company announcement of February 2021, Baltica 2 and Baltica 3 are joint ventures owned and operated 50-50 by the two companies. Semco Maritime’s own project page for this contract describes it as the company’s second offshore wind project in Poland, won through competition against European and Asia-Pacific rivals under an EU procurement tender. The same page lists 12 areas of responsibility for the consortium, including high- and medium-voltage equipment plus low-voltage systems, protection and control, HVAC, fire suppression, and communications, and states that commissioning covers both onshore and offshore work. The contract covers the four substations and the module support structures.

The same consortium has already built two substations for Taiwan, and this marks its first for Europe

The scope of the “first” is stated two different ways within the PetroTimes article. At the outset, it calls this the first milestone in which offshore wind structures manufactured in Vietnam have been delivered to Europe; toward the end, it narrows the scope to describe it as the first case of offshore wind structures handled by PTSC M&C being exported from Vietnam to Europe. President Thu’s remarks are likewise framed around his own company’s track record. The Investor’s article of September 23 uses the same framing, stating that this is the first time Vietnamese-made offshore wind structures have been delivered to a European project. None of the announcements state that a third party has verified this.

The offshore substations themselves are not the first of their kind. According to Semco Maritime’s announcement of March 11, 2025, the same Semco Maritime–PTSC M&C consortium built two offshore substations for Hai Long 2 and Hai Long 3 in the Taiwan Strait, both manufactured at PTSC M&C’s yard in Vung Tau, southern Vietnam. Hai Long 2 departed in April 2024, and Hai Long 3 departed on March 8, 2025. The “first” in this case applies not to building offshore substations itself, but to the fact that the destination is Europe.

More than 2,000 workers were brought in, and the yard's development started with site preparation and ground reinforcement

According to the PetroTimes article, PTSC M&C progressed all four units in parallel starting from steel cutting on November 27, 2024. Alongside this process, the company carried out site preparation and ground reinforcement, reorganized the layout of material storage areas, and synchronized its equipment systems. At peak, mobilization involved more than 2,000 directly employed workers and around 200 indirect personnel.

Regarding safe working hours without a lost-time incident, PetroTimes' own text puts the figure at 5 million hours as of April 2026, while a statement by President Tu quoted in the same article puts it at more than 5.5 million hours. Both are figures tallied by the company itself.

Projects that have 16,000 tons built locally and projects that ship component kits draw the division-of-labor line differently

How the manufacturing process is divided differs by project, depending on how a foreign investor chooses to use Vietnam's manufacturing base. In the joint venture Dutch aluminum boat maker Almax started in Bac Ninh Province, aluminum components cut to size are shipped from the home country and assembled locally (Aluminum boats 40% cheaper through local assembly: the Dutch boatbuilder's Vietnam joint venture as a model). The precision processes of design and cutting stay in the home country.

For Baltica 2, the line is drawn differently. The Vietnamese side's scope covers building the roughly 16,000 tons of structure combining the 4 substations and jacket foundations, through onshore commissioning. This weight includes high- and medium-voltage equipment and SCADA systems, whose design, procurement, and installation are handled by Europe's Semco Maritime. Under this arrangement, heavy-structure construction and final checks are placed at an Asian yard while electrical system design and procurement stay with the European side; the tender was awarded in 2023, and the goods shipped out in September 2026. The two named major subcontractors are ISC Consulting Engineers and Hyundai Electric.

The client is a European power utility; the tender was conducted under EU procurement rules, and the manufacturing of the steel structures and onshore commissioning were awarded to a Vietnamese yard.

Adding functions beyond manufacturing to the scope of Vietnam-based operations is also progressing in other industries. Major watch band maker Nihon Seimitsu set up a preparatory office in 2026 to add R&D functions to its existing plant in Ho Chi Minh City, aiming for full-scale operation in 2027 (Why Nippon Precision is upgrading Vietnam into a place to develop products). In PTSC M&C’s case, what differentiates it from sites that only handle manufacturing is that the Vietnamese side’s scope includes onshore commissioning. The trend of how far local companies have raised the bar for order eligibility is also covered in coverage of Samsung’s efforts to develop local suppliers in Bac Ninh Province (Samsung takes Bac Ninh local sourcing digital: how Japanese parts makers should move).

Ørsted has stated that this collaboration demonstrates Vietnam's offshore engineering capability and has expressed an intention to continue exploring opportunities for cooperation. The Vietnamese-language original frames this as an expectation that components manufactured in Vietnam will also be used in offshore wind projects within Vietnam itself.

Sources

• The Investor, "Vietnam-made offshore wind substations shipped to Europe for Baltica 2 project" (September 23, 2026)
• PetroTimes (an oil and gas industry publication, PETROVIETNAM section), “PTSC M&C xuất khẩu 4 trạm biến áp điện gió ngoài khơi đến thị trường châu Âu” (September 12, 2026)
• Semco Maritime, “Semco Maritime and PTSC M&C Baltica 2 substations contract” (June 13, 2023)
• Semco Maritime, "Baltica 2 Offshore Substations" (project overview)
• Semco Maritime, "Hai Long load-out and sail-away" (March 11, 2025)
• Ørsted, "Ørsted and PGE form 50-50 joint venture on Baltica 2 and 3" (February 2021)
• Ørsted, "Ørsted and PGE kick off offshore installation of Baltica 2 project" (May 11, 2026)