The unlisted group competes with Denmark's Vestas, Siemens Gamesa, General Electric as well as Nordex, and relies heavily on the German market, which has seen a sharp decline in turbine installations.

Enercon was not immediately available for comment on the cuts, which were also reported by several other German media.

In its latest auction last month, Germany's network agency awarded just 204 megawatts MW of wind capacity, less than a third of the 675 MW on offer.

"The crisis of the energy shift has reached us now, too," Enercon boss Hans-Dieter Kettwig was quoted by Sueddeutsche Zeitung as saying, without being more specific. "The government has pulled the plug on us."

(Reporting by Markus Wacket; writing by Christoph Steitz; editing by Jason Neely)