On the "boot root" of the boot-shaped Apennine Peninsula, lies the most important port in southeastern Italy, the Port of Taranto, which is said to be the hometown of Taras, the son of Poseidon, the god of the sea.
It belongs to a typical Mediterranean climate, with high temperature and little rain in summer, warm and humid winter, and an annual average wind speed of about 5.2 meters per second.The sea breeze whipped up the waves of the Mediterranean and patted the shore.
In February this year, 10 white wind turbines over 100 meters high were erected on the blue sea not far from the port.In April, as the wind turbines turned, a steady stream of green electricity began to be fed into Italy's grid.
The fans are produced by Chinese company Mingyang Intelligent (601615.SH).This project is the first offshore wind power project in Italy and the Mediterranean region, and it is also the first time that a Chinese OEM has set up wind turbines in European waters.
36 years ago, China's first wind farm was built in Rongcheng, Shandong. Vestas and other foreign companies played the role of "pioneers" in the domestic wind power industry.Today, Chinese wind turbine manufacturers, which rely on the growth of the domestic market, have the ability to compete with European and American wind turbine giants such as Vestas and GE, and have begun to accelerate their competition for overseas markets.
According to the statistics of the Wind Energy Professional Committee of the China Renewable Energy Society, China exported 886 wind turbines with a capacity of 3.268 million kilowatts last year, a year-on-year increase of 175.2% and a record high.
Last year, China achieved the export of offshore wind turbines for the first time.A total of 72 offshore wind turbines from Goldwind (002202.SZ), Mingyang Smart and Dongfang Electric (600875.SH) were exported to Vietnam.
Mingyang Intelligent has received an offshore wind power order from Japan for the first time, and this is also the first time that Chinese wind turbines have been exported to Japan.
During the same period, China Energy Construction has won the most mainland wind power and offshore wind power projects in Vietnam, all of which use domestic units; Envision Energy has won the largest single overseas market order for a Chinese wind turbine brand so far in India.
Open the "going out" pattern
In 2007, China exported its first wind turbine.However, because the technical genes originate from overseas, Chinese wind power manufacturers cannot compete with international giants for a long time.
"Unlike home appliance companies, the whole machine business goes overseas not only to sell wind turbines, but also to complete the construction of wind power projects." Qin Haiyan, secretary-general of the Wind Energy Professional Committee of the China Renewable Energy Society, told Jiemian News, this means that companies not only need to be familiar with The policy and regulatory environment of each country also needs to participate in financing, certification, logistics, construction and installation and many other links to form a complete set of supporting systems as support. This is a gradual process.
In addition to the high barriers to entry, the small scale of foreign wind power projects also increases the difficulty for domestic OEMs to deploy overseas markets.In the past decade or so, the pace of "going out" of Chinese wind power manufacturers has been relatively slow.
After rapid development in recent years, the technical level and kWh cost of Chinese wind power manufacturers have caught up, and they have the strength to go global.At present, China's wind turbines have been exported to 42 countries and regions on six continents.
Major breakthroughs have also been made in the overseas business of leading OEMs.
Last year, the total installed capacity of Goldwind's international projects was 452,400 kilowatts, a year-on-year increase of 82.71%; the installed capacity of newly commissioned units was 204,800 kilowatts, a year-on-year increase of 14.09%.
In the same period, Goldwind's international business revenue was 6.06 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 31.9%, and revenue accounted for 11.98%, the first time it reached double digits.The gross profit margin of the segment was 18.6%, a year-on-year increase of 27.45 percentage points.
Goldwind's orders on hand in the South American market reached 691,000 kilowatts, a year-on-year increase of 188%, making Goldwind the third largest wind power company in Argentina.
WISCO, chairman of Goldwind Technology, said at the 2021 performance briefing that the company plans to achieve a 5% market share of foreign complete machines in 2025.
Last year, Envision Energy added 650,000 kilowatts of wind power installed overseas, a year-on-year increase of 132%, making it the largest onshore wind power manufacturer in Vietnam; and won a large order in the Indian market, and will provide 596 wind turbines with an installed capacity of nearly 2 GW .
During the same period, Mingyang Smart’s overseas business revenue was 172 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of more than 33 times.New overseas sales orders were 455,000 kilowatts, a year-on-year increase of 19.74%.
In addition to the Vietnamese market, Mingyang Smart has invested in the offshore wind power market in Europe, Japan and South Korea.In addition to projects in Taranto, Italy and Japan, Mingyang Smart will also provide 11 MW semi-direct-drive offshore wind turbines for a European floating project, which is expected to land in 2023.
Mingyang Smart has also started to invest in overseas factories.In December last year, Mingyang Intelligent and the British government reached an agreement of intent to invest in the construction of a fan and blade production base in the local area.
On May 30 this year, Mingyang Intelligent signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Unison, the largest wind power manufacturer in South Korea and a wind power company.The two parties will build a wind power center in South Korea and promote the research and development of fixed and floating offshore models suitable for the Korean market.
The annual increase in wind power construction in emerging markets such as Vietnam provides opportunities for Chinese wind power to go overseas.
In 2021, Vietnam will replace Australia as the country with the largest number of new and cumulative exports of wind turbines in China, accounting for 72.1% and 25.4% of the total export volume respectively.
Vietnam is in the rush to install wind power, with a target of 14-24 GW of onshore wind power and 7-8 GW of offshore wind power by 2030.By the end of 2023, Vietnam’s onshore and offshore wind projects can receive subsidies of 8.5 cents and 9.8 cents per kWh, respectively.
Qin Haiyan believes that as domestic wind power equipment manufacturers have established a relatively complete supporting system around the world, and can provide a rich product portfolio with technology, quality and price competitiveness, China's wind power equipment exports are entering a stage of explosive growth. "Ten It is expected to achieve exponential growth during the "Fourth Five-Year" period.
Qin Haiyan believes that overseas markets have opened up new incremental markets for China's wind power industry, which can ensure sufficient annual growth scale to promote industrial development.
"Competing on the same stage with international manufacturers can speed up the iterative speed of technological innovation of domestic enterprises." Qin Haiyan said that relying on equipment export and project development, it can also accelerate the output of China's wind power technical standards, and promote domestic enterprises to gain greater opportunities on the international stage. The right to speak.
In addition, by setting up R&D centers abroad and strengthening cooperation with relevant scientific research institutes, universities and other institutions, while being closer to overseas markets, it can also make full use of the advantages of global R&D resources.
A number of wind power industry insiders told Jiemian News that the domestic complete machine market is saturated, and exporting can avoid pure price competition among domestic complete machine manufacturers and ease the pressure of competition.
Competitiveness of domestic fans
China is the world's largest wind power equipment manufacturing base.According to statistics from the Global Wind Energy Association, China has been the world's largest wind power market for 12 consecutive years, accounting for 50.91% of the total.According to Bloomberg New Energy Finance, six of the top 10 global manufacturers last year were from China.
China's wind power market has obvious advantages of scale.According to data provided by Qin Haiyan, China's output of wind turbines, hubs, racks, blades, gearboxes, and bearings accounts for 60%-70% of the world's output, and the output of wind turbines accounts for more than 2/3 of the world's.
Qin Haiyan said that China's manufacturing base is also an important support for foreign-funded enterprises to explore the international market.Taking Vestas as an example, the annual delivery volume of the Chinese manufacturing base accounts for more than half of its total delivery volume.
At the same time, the price advantage of Chinese fans is obvious.In 2021, China's onshore wind power will enter the era of parity, and domestic mainstream wind turbine manufacturers frequently offer low prices.Wind turbine prices in China fell 24 percent last year, according to data from consultancy Wood Mackenzie.
Due to price pressure, foreign companies such as Vestas, GE, Siemens Gamesa, which made significant contributions to China's wind power market in the early days, were silent in the bidding list of Chinese customers, and the number of installations in China was reduced by half last year.
Last year, Vestas, the world's largest wind turbine manufacturer, had a market share of only 1.2% in China, ranking 12th.Siemens Gamesa even gave up sales of onshore wind turbines in China.
Affected by the epidemic, global energy prices and transportation costs rose last year, and some supply chains were interrupted. Siemens Gamesa fell into huge losses, and Vestas also experienced a decline in profits.
Thanks to the huge and stable domestic market, the performance of Chinese OEMs has not been affected.The five listed wind power companies have all achieved a substantial increase in profits.
At the same time, the previous technical shortcomings of domestic wind power manufacturers have gradually been made up.Goldwind told Jiemian News that the Chinese wind power company has the ability to independently develop and manufacture large-megawatt wind power units and key core components.
Goldwind said that the international business chain of China's wind power industry has basically taken shape, covering technology research and development, development and construction, equipment supply, testing and certification, and supporting services.The relatively mature supply chain, rich development experience and high project execution efficiency are the advantages of domestic wind power.
Xu Gang, global vice president of Envision Energy, told Jiemian News that Chinese wind turbines are even ahead of the mainstream in the international market in terms of megawatts and impeller diameters.
The rapid growth of China's wind power exports also benefits from good financing capabilities.Sun Wenxuan, founder and general manager of Ruixuan Consulting, told Jiemian News that in some emerging markets or developing countries, Chinese complete machine companies can solve the financing needs of local developers, which has become a major selling point of Chinese complete machines in overseas markets.
Jiemian News has learned that Chinese OEMs expand exports by purchasing and developing projects abroad.This avoids export barriers such as their lack of track record in foreign markets, and many investments are backed by financing from institutions such as the China Development Bank.
Sun Wenxuan believes that China Energy Construction, China Power Construction and other EPC enterprises and state-owned enterprise developers have accelerated the construction of the "Belt and Road" project, which has also driven wind power manufacturers to go overseas together.
According to incomplete statistics from Jiemian News, in 2021, China Energy Construction will build Vietnam's largest 350 MW offshore wind power project in Vietnam's Ca Mau No. 1, and the VPL 30 MW offshore wind power project; onshore construction of Vietnam's Denong 300 MW wind power project Project, Pingshun Phase II 90MW Wind Power Project, Yabei 2×49.5MW Wind Power Project, and Jialai Wind Power Project Conglong Township 155MW Wind Power Project, etc.
During the same period, POWERCHINA constructed Vietnam Binh Da 310MW offshore wind power transportation project, Le Hoa Phase II 130MW wind power project, Soc Trang No. 2 30MW offshore wind power EPC contract, Ben Tre 80MW offshore wind power project EPC contract and 20-year operation and maintenance contract, etc.
Insufficient ability to go to sea independently
Despite the acceleration of exports, Chinese wind power manufacturers have not yet been able to dominate the overseas market, and many projects have followed CEEC, POWERCHINA and central SOE developers to go overseas, and the ability to go overseas independently is still insufficient.
Sun Wenxuan told Jiemian News that in the future, the domestic wind power market can still maintain an installed capacity of more than 50-60 GW per year.This huge domestic market increment and competitive environment will cause some wind power companies to lack motivation for their internationalization strategies.
Since last year, the development of wind power in emerging markets such as Vietnam has accelerated, and the growth rate of China’s wind power overseas has increased “passively”, but only a small number of them are independently contacting local developers and winning bids, and most of them are free rides on projects from central enterprise developers and EPC companies .
Sun Wenxuan pointed out that, except for the leading OEMs, most OEMs have not raised internationalization to an important strategy, and have not actively deployed overseas markets.
Compared with overseas giants, there is still a gap in China's wind turbine technology.Sun Wenxuan said that in mature overseas markets such as Western Europe, the United States, and Japan, investors pay more attention to the technology, quality and return on the entire life cycle of wind turbines.
"Foreign countries have higher requirements for the certification and quality of wind turbines, and the price sensitivity is low." Sun Wenxuan said that the sales of wind power generators are limited by factors such as overseas market performance, operation quality and technical level. rigorous assessment.
According to Jiemian News, overseas customers pay more attention to the long-term profitability of projects, pay more attention to the long-term installed performance and operation records, and use the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) and power generation as the measurement standards compared to the low-cost static investment in the early stage. .
In addition, overseas business imposes stricter requirements on various aspects such as business, law, and finance.
Xu Gang told Jiemian News that to independently go to the international market, it is necessary to test the ability of the whole machine to adapt to the business environment, market matching, supply chain integration, innovative research and development, rapid response, and cultural integration.
"Competitive products, agile service response, and trustworthy performance capabilities are the keys to the success of OEMs," said Xu Gang.
Goldwind said that for each market it enters, the company will spend a long time familiarizing itself with market rules and requirements, especially in terms of power grid and environmental security, in order to ensure the smooth completion of the project and avoid damage to the interests of relevant parties.
"Overseas is not a market that makes quick money. Many risk factors may lead to failure to fully perform the contract or the product cannot meet the requirements of power generation." Xu Gang said that domestic OEMs need to respect the rules of the game and contracts when going overseas, not opportunistic, patient and hard work Products, services and supply chain internal strength, "need to be very careful before negotiating commitments and signing contracts."
Goldwind suggested that enterprises need to improve their international management capabilities and awareness, strengthen compliance, legal and localized operations, establish an international management system, and improve risk prevention and control capabilities."Under the influence of the climate change crisis, wind turbines must not only meet product quality requirements, but also certification of environmental attributes is becoming a new development trend," the company said.
