Wind power equipment companies "price change" quality is worrying

People in the industry believe that some small and medium sized wind power equipment manufacturing companies have adopted a pass-through effect, which has finally forced the entire wind power equipment manufacturing industry to join the ranks of “price-reduction promotion and market-changing”.

Reporters recently learned from interviews in Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, and Shandong provinces that China’s wind power equipment manufacturing companies generally experienced a decline in profits and even losses. Some companies have laid off workers or have been forced to suspend work. They are trying to save the market in order to change their prices. The vicious competition has intensified, and some regions have given up their winds.

Firms lay off or suspend production due to falling profits
The third quarter report issued by listed companies of wind power equipment shows that these companies have suffered serious declines in operating income and profits this year. Among them, the sales revenue of Sinovel during the first three quarters of the year was 3.634 billion yuan, a decrease of 56.68% year-on-year; the net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies was -256 million yuan, compared with the previous year's figure of up to 900 million yuan.

Hebei Province is one of the largest wind power provinces in China. By the end of the third quarter of this year, the installed capacity of wind power in Hebei Province was 6.4 million kilowatts, ranking second in the country. Baoding City High-tech Zone is where Hebei wind power industry technology and talents are most concentrated. It has a complete wind power industry chain covering the whole machine, blades, control, and supporting fields. There are more than 70 wind power related companies.

According to Sun Wei, deputy director of the Bureau of Economic Development of Baoding High-tech Zone, due to the global economic downturn, the orders of the enterprises in the park fell sharply, and three complete machine manufacturers stopped production, and most of the blades and supporting enterprises were in semi-discontinued state. .

Li Hongyu, the deputy general manager of Baoding Cologne Weiye Control Equipment Co., Ltd., which is responsible for the manufacture of electric control equipment for large-scale wind turbine generators, told the reporter: “This year, the company’s efficiency has declined sharply. Last year’s output value reached 100 million yuan, but in the first half of this year it only got 2,000. Million order."

AVIC Huiteng Wind Power Equipment Co., Ltd. is one of the most complete and most productive wind turbine blade companies in China. Shen Hongqiang, deputy general manager of the company, said: “A lot of wind power companies are laying off staff, and some companies cut their workforce by three quarters. Although our company still has some businesses, it is difficult to return funds, the cash flow is tense, and we have to lay off more than 100 companies. Employees."

Cheng Ming, a professor at the Southeast University’s Wind Power Research Center, said: “The operating performance of wind power companies has fallen sharply. Many companies have almost no orders and risk of closure.”

Enterprise's "price change" equipment quality is worrying

According to the "2012 China Wind Power Development Report" participated by the China Resources Comprehensive Utilization Association's Renewable Energy Professional Committee, the production capacity of China's major wind power equipment manufacturing industries has reached more than 30 GW in 2011, but the installed capacity of newly added domestic wind turbines during the same period was only 18 GW. The development is still at an experimental stage, resulting in over 40% of domestic equipment production capacity being idle.

Lin Boqiang, director of the China Energy Economic Research Center at Xiamen University, believes that in recent years, there have been many new wind power equipment manufacturing companies and wind power equipment production projects that have directly led to excessive production capacity of wind power equipment. "Overcapacity will inevitably lead to price war, and equipment companies will not be able to earn money."

The rapid development of China's wind power industry took only 5 years to complete the decades of development in developed countries. “However, due to the non-standard domestic standards and low industry barriers, companies have caused mixed results. Some companies not only have low-price and vicious competition, but also have frequent quality problems,” Sun said.

People in the industry believe that some small and medium sized wind power equipment manufacturing companies have adopted a pass-through effect, which has finally forced the entire wind power equipment manufacturing industry to join the ranks of “price-reduction promotion and market-changing”. Shen Hongqiang said: “Now the market is very aggressive, and most companies are losing money on production, and in particular, some small-scale, low-cost companies have put a lot of pressure on us, but we have to pick up some of them to keep production. Profit orders."

Vicious competition has caused concerns about the quality of wind power equipment. Baoding Tianwei Wind Power Technology Co., Ltd. has less than 50% production start-up rate, and blade production start rate is 30%. Wang Tiemin, deputy general manager of the company, believes that the development of the wind power industry is based on resource-for-market and does not operate according to the market mechanism. “Some localities have blindly supported local small businesses. During the implementation of our project, we must source parts and components from local companies. The quality of these companies is uneven and raises the quality control cost of the company.”

According to industry sources, the current price of wind power equipment is difficult to maintain reasonable and high investment in improving, perfecting technology and ensuring quality, which has long been detrimental to the healthy development of wind turbine equipment industry.

"Wind Disappearance" Conspicuously Dissipates Wind Power Equipment

During the interview, the reporter learned that due to the limitations of the system's operating conditions and the inadequacy of local wind power consumption capacity, the phenomenon of “disposal of wind” has been prominent in Inner Mongolia and Gansu provinces, and Shandong and other provinces are also facing the pressure of “disposal”. This further exacerbated the plight of wind power equipment manufacturing companies. "Discarding wind" refers to the phenomenon that wind turbines are under normal conditions, due to insufficient local power grid capacity, unmatched construction period of wind farms, and unstable wind power.

The “2011 China Wind Power Construction Statistical Evaluation Report” issued by the National Wind Power Information Management Center carried out statistics and analysis on the situation of “discarding wind” in 2011. According to the statistical analysis of 584 wind farms in the “Three North” region, Mengdong and Jilin are the hardest-hit areas for “discarding the wind”, and the rate of “discarded winds” exceeds 20%. In addition, the problem of “discarding wind” in Mengxi, Gansu, and Heilongjiang It is also more serious. The rate of "discarding winds" exceeds 10%.

The reporter learned from Shandong Electric Power Group that although all wind farms can be connected to the grid in a timely manner, all wind power generation will be preferentially accessed online and consumed in Shandong Power Grid. Shandong Province has not yet experienced a phenomenon of “disposal of wind” but Shandong is also facing “ Discard the wind pressure.

Some wind power equipment manufacturing companies believe that the local wind power overcapacity and local wind power absorption capacity can not keep up with the phenomenon of "wind wind" resulting in poor electric field benefits, and conducted to the upstream wind power equipment manufacturing companies, reducing the wind power equipment The demand will make the prospect of wind power equipment manufacturing companies even more uncertain.