Wind power companies want to expand new battlefield

Recently, major domestic wind power equipment companies have issued half-yearly reports. The rapid development of the wind power industry in the first two years has slowed down in the first half of 2010. In response to this trend, leading domestic wind power companies have tried to exploit new technologies and services to develop new profit growth points.

Reporter Lu Xiaohui's photography report

In the middle of the year, the major wind power equipment companies in the country recently released their own interim report. According to the mid-year report of various companies, the development speed of wind power equipment enterprises that had been making rapid progress in the past two years suddenly slowed down in the first half of 2010. Taking Xiangdian Electric as an example, its financial report performance in the first half of 2009 increased by 300%. In the first half of 2010, net profit attributable to shareholders of the company only increased by more than 50% over the same period of last year.

Similarly, the leading domestic wind power companies, Goldwind achieved operating revenue of 6.3 billion yuan in the first half of this year, an increase of 65.57% over the same period of the previous year, and achieved a net profit of 770 million yuan attributable to the parent company, an increase of 44.35% over the same period of last year.

Overcapacity and slower development of the industry have led to the trend of the current domestic wind power leading companies slogan of using technology and services to develop new profit growth points.

Falling prices

In the past five years, the installed capacity of wind power in China has increased by more than 50% annually, and the expectation of high growth has encouraged the investment in wind power equipment manufacturing industry. In recent years, all regions have been competing for wind power projects, and China has become the fastest growing country in the world in the wind power equipment manufacturing industry.

Shen Dechang, deputy secretary-general of the Wind Energy Equipment Branch of the China Agricultural Machinery Industry Association, said that in recent years, too many domestic wind power equipment manufacturers have built too fast. Two figures can illustrate this: There are about 140 wind power equipment manufacturers in the world, and China accounts for 90, and the vast majority of the 90 domestic wind power equipment production enterprises have emerged and developed in the last three to four years. Up.

The rapid increase in the number of enterprises has led to a rise in capacity of wind power equipment. Shen Dechang said that by the end of this year, the domestic installed capacity of wind power will reach 30 million kilowatts, which is the goal of wind power development planned by the country by 2020. In this regard, the recent domestic major brokerage research institutions have issued reports that China's wind power equipment production capacity has exceeded market demand.

The overcapacity of wind power equipment has led to a price war for wind power equipment companies. It is reported that the current domestic fan prices have dropped from 5,000 yuan per kilowatt at the beginning of this year to 4,600 yuan. Even foreign companies that previously did not bother with price wars have recently started their price war in the country as usual to grab the site. Take Vestas as an example. Two years ago, the company’s fan price was more than 6,000 yuan per kilowatt. Vestas can now reduce the price to 5,200-5,500 yuan per kilowatt. The rapidly falling price attracts a lot of it. Order.

The fierce price war has weakened the profits of wind power equipment manufacturing companies. It is not difficult to understand the year-on-year profit growth of various companies this year.

Technology will become the focus of the future

Although the overall wind power equipment manufacturing industry is in surplus, leading companies such as Goldwind, Sinovel, and Dongfang Electric have been fully booked. Experts believe that strong technical strength is undoubtedly an important guarantee for leading companies to open up markets.

Jinfeng Technology vice president and board secretary Ma Jinru told reporters that as of June 30, 2010, the company had orders totaling 3790.25 megawatts (MW), of which 750 kW units were 132.75 MW, 1.5 MW units were 3652.5 MW, and 2.5 MW units 5MW; In addition, the company won the bid of 1502MW without formal contract, and the above two items totaled 5292.25MW. And Goldwind's existing orders have been scheduled for a year or two.

Experts said that at present, the wind power equipment manufacturing industry has entered the process of survival of the fittest, and it is also a process of upgrading new technologies and new products. Price competition makes enterprises pay more attention to their own core technology research and development. The relevant person in charge of Goldwind said: "For future competition, Goldwind will continue to deepen its existing direct-drive wind turbines with technological advantages."

According to Zhou Wei, Director of Goldwind's Strategy and Planning Department, before 2007, only Goldwind Technology and Germany's ENERCON Corporation produced direct-drive wind turbines. In recent years, with the increase in unit capacity, the demand for wind power and grid connection has become increasingly Strictly, the performance advantages of direct drive technology, especially permanent magnet direct drive technology, are fully demonstrated. Wind power giants such as Siemens and GE have also entered the camp of permanent magnet direct drive.

Experts believe that as time goes by, the comparison of the results of direct-drive and doubly-fed motors in practice will encourage more wind power developers to turn to direct-drive technology, and Goldwind Technology, with its direct-drive core technology, will benefit.

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

Value-added services into industry growth

In the industrial value chain, the regions with the highest added value are concentrated in R&D, marketing, and service. At present, the speed of development of wind power equipment manufacturing has begun to slow down, and domestic companies have begun to shift their attention to service links.

From the experience of foreign power companies, after a certain degree of product development, expanding services is an inevitable choice. International power leaders ABB and Alstom accounted for 15.6% and 26.4% of service revenue in 2009, respectively. ABB has entered a period of rapid growth since 2001. With the increase in equipment, products and solutions, the demand for services from customers is also increasing. In addition to providing value-added services for self-produced equipment, ABB also provides an independent service business in its own professional field.

Experts said: "In view of this, China's wind power equipment manufacturing enterprises should improve existing services and develop new value-added services, such as parts maintenance services and consulting services. In addition, they must strive to localize services and ensure that they are as short as possible. satisfy customer needs."

Although the current income from domestic wind power equipment business services is still minimal, it is on the rise. And industry experts are very optimistic about the market. Zhou Yu said: “After the rapid development since 2004, a large number of wind farms in China have entered operation, and the units have begun to step out of the warranty period, so the future of wind power equipment and wind farm operation service market is very big.”

In this regard, leading domestic wind power equipment companies have begun to plan to expand the value-added services market for wind power equipment.

Zhou Hao said that the current wind turbine business accounted for more than 95%, in the next five years, with the further expansion of gold wind technology business institutions, and actively develop in other industries including industrial investment, wind farm investment, comprehensive wind power services, etc. The platform and service will be one of the important pillars of the company's development. It is expected that the value-added service business of wind power equipment will increase by 40%-50% in the next five years.