By Alwyn Scott
NEW YORK (Reuters) - General Electric (NYSE:GE) Co booked the most orders for electricity-generating gas turbines in 2018 but fell to second place for the largest and most advanced machines, behind Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems, according to a closely watched report seen by Reuters and people familiar with the matter.
Demand for gas turbines has been tumbling since 2011, stoking fierce competition for deals and prompting manufacturers to slash jobs and close factories. GE is in the midst of a multi-year restructuring of its power business, which lost $808 million last year.
The latest rankings show Mitsubishi won 41 percent of the orders last year for turbines that can produce 100 megawatts or more, compared with 28 percent for GE and 25 percent for Siemens AG (DE:SIEGn), according to McCoy Power Reports data.
Among newest-generation turbines, known as "post F-class," MHPS got 49 percent of orders, compared with 34 percent for GE and 16 percent for Siemens, the data shows.
Orders for the most advanced turbines have dwindled along with the entire market, even though they churn out the most electricity per unit of fuel burned. GE suffered a high-profile breakdown with one of its advanced turbines in Texas last year, and warned it may spend $480 million on repairs for the global fleet.
GE last year held onto its longtime top spot when all orders were counted.
The rankings show GE dominated orders for older-technology F-class turbines and that it had an overall tally of 33 percent of orders by capacity, compared with 31 percent for MHPS and 26 percent for Siemens.
GE is "proud to the leader ... as it has been every year since 2010," spokeswoman Kirstin Carvell said. Siemens did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Mitsubishi said in a statement on Tuesday that its ranking largely reflected orders for its new J-Series turbine, which the company said has greater than 64 percent efficiency and 99.5 percent reliability.