China’s wind-turbine makers vow ‘self-discipline’ in pledge to end price war
Twelve leaders in the sector follow solar equipment makers in an agreement to end their damaging campaign of undercutting
China’s major wind-turbine manufacturers pledged to end the industry’s prolonged price war, following a similar announcement by the country’s solar-panel industry a few days earlier.
Twelve leading players – including Goldwind, Envision, Mingyang Smart Energy, Shanghai Electric and Dongfeng Electric – signed the promise at a conference in Beijing on Wednesday, agreeing to improve self-discipline in setting prices and avoid price collusion.
Undercutting in the wind-energy industry is hurting manufacturers’ earnings and hindering the sector’s sustainable development, forcing most companies to take losses, said Qin Haiyan, the head of the China Wind Turbine Association.
“Wind power is an advanced productive force, and wind turbines require a long usage cycle and represent high-value investment,” said Lou Yimin, Envision Energy’s senior vice-president and president of the wind-turbine division. “We must look to the long term and focus on the return on investment over a full life cycle of 25 to 30 years.”
He said he hoped the industry would return to a path of healthy development and rationality through the joint pledge.
The announcement came after the 780-member China Photovoltaic Industry Association hosted a meeting in Shanghai on Monday, during which companies including Longi Green Energy, Tongwei and JinkoSolar reached a consensus to prevent “vicious” competition.
China led the world in wind and solar capacity growth last year, adding 76 gigawatts (GW) of wind capacity, 66 per cent of the world’s total, and more than 60 per cent of the world’s 425GW of solar photovoltaic (PV) capacity, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said in a report on Wednesday.
