The deal will see 50 staff transferred from the firm’s traditional bridge building operation to help manufacture the turbine towers.

Mabey is also taking on 45 new staff and a 170-strong team will be working 24-hours-a-day to meet the order at the firm’s South Wales factory.

Production of the 120 tonne structures will start mid February and 14 of the towers will be installed at the Pant-Y-Wal wind farm near Rhondda in South Wales.

The remaining 21 towers are set for installation in June 2012 at the Baillie wind farm – owned by local windfarm developers and Statkraft – near Thurso on the north coast of Scotland

Mabey Bridge UK director Alex Smale said: “2011 was a challenging year for the wind turbine industry overall, with the latest available figures putting the number of new towers installed onshore in the UK last year at fewer than 250.

“Against this backdrop, the signing of a 35-tower deal with Nordex is a real boost for all the staff working at Mabey Bridge. We are very excited by the market currently and expect to make further announcements soon.”