Price war intensifies wind power equipment manufacturing reshuffle

With the emergence of local overcapacity, the price war of wind power equipment has become increasingly fierce, and the unit cost is falling sharply. It is reported that in Inner Mongolia, Liaoning, Hebei, and Guangdong, the current average price of wind turbines has fallen by nearly 1,000 yuan per kilowatt compared with 2009.

Partner of the Beijing University Management Co., Ltd. Yu Zhongjiang said in an interview with reporters: “The wind power equipment manufacturing industry is similar to the S-type development rule of the Internet industry. In the early stage of industrial development, various 'concepts' will be sought after by capital, no matter how big Enterprises or small companies have poured into them, but as the demand for industry becomes higher and higher, the entire industry has entered overcapacity and phase-out period, and capital has begun to withdraw. When the industry recovers, the rest is those that can stand the market. Tested high-quality company."

Price war accelerates industry consolidation

The “2009-2010 Annual Report on China's Wind Power Equipment Manufacturing Industry Research” recently released by Beijing University Management Consulting Co., Ltd. shows that in the first half of this year, competition in the wind power equipment manufacturing industry continued to intensify. If the price war is further aggravated, regular strategies such as strengthening the supply chain's cost management cannot solve the fundamental problems.

At present, the installed capacity of wind power in China has exceeded 50% for 5 consecutive years, and the expectation of high growth has encouraged the investment in wind power equipment manufacturing industry.

As of 2009, the installed capacity of wind power in China has reached 25.1 million kilowatts, accounting for 15.8% of the total installed capacity in the world in 2009, and the total installed capacity has risen to the third place in the world. In this context, there are 83 companies in China that have entered the wind turbine generator manufacturing industry.

It is reported that if the production capacity of 83 companies is fully released, the wind power equipment production capacity will reach 35 million kilowatts per year, and the average installed capacity of wind power in the next five years will be at least 10 million kilowatts, so the industry’s overall overcapacity has already emerged.

In this regard, Zhong Jiang believes that due to the reduction in profit margins caused by the price war, some wind power equipment manufacturing companies that lack strength may withdraw from the market and the industry concentration may further increase.

Zhang Jian, assistant general manager of Baoding Tianchuang Wind Power Control Engineering Co., Ltd., believes that the first half of 2010 is the rapid development of the wind power industry for half a year, and it is also the industry consolidation for half a year. The rapid development of large-scale wind power machine manufacturers, while some small machine manufacturers face the situation of being acquired, mergers and even closed down. "This situation will continue in the second half of the year," he said.

Yu Zhongjiang also said: “At present, due to increasing competition, wind power industry will have horizontal and vertical integration, including the integration of wind power equipment manufacturers and integration between wind power developers, complete machine manufacturers and parts manufacturers, The degree of concentration will continue to increase, and some small and medium-sized wind power equipment manufacturers may be integrated or eliminated."

Innovation Mode Differentiated Competition

Faced with the ever-evolving competitive situation, currently wind power equipment manufacturing companies with core resource advantages are trying to pursue differentiated positioning. Some companies specialize in high-altitude wind turbines and some target offshore wind turbines.

At present, large-megawatt-class wind turbines have become the main battlefield for offshore wind power competition. At the beginning of this year, the first batch of 3 megawatt wind turbines of Sinovel Wind Science and Technology (Gansu) Co., Ltd. has entered the mass production and large-scale production stage. Some powerful wind power equipment manufacturing companies have also started to deploy megawatt-class wind turbines.

In addition, because the price war has compressed the profitability of enterprises, some companies have begun to attempt to innovate in business models. For example, Goldwind Technology Co., Ltd. is trying wind farm sales model. The core of this model is to invest in the development and construction of wind farms by the project companies of wind power equipment production companies and to use wind turbines of the company. After the completion of the project construction, investors will acquire the equity of the sales project company and realize premium income. The Wulate wind farm in Inner Mongolia is a project developed by Beijing Tianrun, a subsidiary of Goldwind Technologies. This model began to test water in 2007 and won the attention of domestic and foreign investors during the early stages of project development. They have come to negotiate and hope to purchase the wind power project developed by the company as soon as possible.

In addition, Zhong Jiang suggested that wind power equipment companies have to closely integrate with the market to establish a close strategic alliance with wind power developers in order to gain an advantage in the current competitive environment. Efforts to open up markets in Europe and the United States, and to expand markets in Asia, Africa, and Latin America with technological advantages are also important breakthroughs.

The core technology becomes the dominant factor

Although the overall wind power equipment manufacturing industry is in excess, orders from leading companies such as Goldwind, Huarui, and Dongfang Electric have always been full. Strong technical strength is undoubtedly an important guarantee for leading companies to open up markets.

At present, the wind power equipment manufacturing industry has entered the process of survival of the fittest. It is also the process of upgrading new technologies and products. Price competition makes enterprises pay more attention to their own core technology research and development.

The responsible person of Guodian United Power Technology (Baoding) Co., Ltd. believes that the focus of the company should be to combine the actual market demand, improve the research and development capabilities in a targeted manner, and eventually realize technological innovation to drive industrial upgrading, and the scale of production with technology as the core is competition. The development model of force. Therefore, having its own R&D team and core technology is the dominant factor in determining whether the company can survive and win in the market competition in the future.

Guodian United Power is currently building the State Key Laboratory of Wind Power Equipment and System Technology, which is currently the only national key laboratory in the field of wind power equipment.

In order to improve the competitiveness of enterprises, Tianchuang Wind Power Company has also started a new research and development project. According to Zhang Tao, with the shrinking of the market for fixed-pitch aircraft models, Tianchuang Wind Power Co., Ltd. has now embarked on the research and development of the variable-pitch control system for mainstream pitch turbines currently on the market. The current control system is under research and development and plans to conduct prototype tests in October this year. run.