Analysis of Domestic Power Equipment Manufacturing Industry Competitiveness

In this year's two sessions of the National People's Congress, Wang Ji, deputy to the National People's Congress and chairman of the Dongfang Electric Group, said that compared with world-class companies, the competitive advantages of domestic power generation equipment are more reflected in the advantages of cost-effectiveness and human cost. Under the background that the state encourages Chinese enterprises to “go global”, what is the international competitiveness of domestically produced power generation equipment? What are the future development ideas?

insufficient

Product structure needs to be adjusted and forward-looking awareness still needs to be improved

Compared with the United States, General Electric, Germany's Siemens and other companies in the "first group", China's power generation equipment companies still have much room for improvement. When summing up Dongfang Electric’s competitive advantages, Dong Wang, chairman of Dongfang Electric Group, mentioned the advantages of cost-effectiveness and manpower cost, but also mentioned inadequacies—it still needs continuous R&D, continuous improvement in management, and constant innovation. Wang Ji believes: "Only this will take a long period of time to run. It will be possible for Chinese manufacturing companies to achieve full-scale competition with world-class companies."

So, compared with world-class companies, where is the performance of China's power generation equipment companies? Experts from the Task Force of the Survey and Evaluation of the International Competitiveness of China's Power Generation Equipment Manufacturing Industry believe that this is mainly reflected in two aspects: the current structure of the company is not adapted to the global competition landscape, and forward-looking technology research is insufficient.

Due to the reasons for the domestic industrial structure layout, Chinese companies are mainly set up to meet the needs of the domestic market when they are established, mainly in the production of power generation equipment, and the export of coal-fired power units is the majority; while the export forms are mainly the credit and license of buyers and sellers. Trade, overseas general contracting, equipment complete capacity is relatively insufficient. The single export products and the single export form mean that China's power generation equipment companies have a relatively high export risk and are not conducive to further “going out”.

On the other hand, most of China's power generation equipment manufacturing companies adopt a technology line that focuses on the introduction of digestion and absorption. Although the reinvention capacity and integrated innovation capability have improved significantly, the research on advanced power generation technology started late, the development time is short, and the prospective technology research is insufficient. This results in the relative lack of research on raw materials technologies by Chinese companies, which has led our enterprises to master the application of materials, but they have to import key raw materials.

Technological Innovation Capability Improves the Status of China's Power Generation Equipment Manufacturing Firms

In the 1980s, the products manufactured by the Dongfang Electric Group went abroad for the first time, which lifted the curtain of “going out” of Chinese power generation equipment. Today, China's power generation equipment products represented by Dongfang Electric, Shanghai Electric and Harbin Electric Power Group not only occupy the dominant position of domestic electric power installations, but also the equipment products are exported to many countries and regions such as Southeast Asia, Africa, Europe, and South America.

In the domestic market, according to relevant statistical data, China has nearly 900 million kilowatts of power installed capacity, and more than 80% are domestically-made units. In the international market, China-made power generation equipment has also become increasingly popular. Wang Ji, chairman of the Dongfang Electric Group, said that in the past, Saudi Arabian companies did not accept our equipment, but last year, Dongfang Electric and Saudi Arabia signed a power plant general contract, which marked the first time that China’s large-scale power generation equipment has entered the country. In February last year, Dongfang Electric signed a bilateral cooperation document with a Brazilian company for the Gilaou Hydropower Project, which enabled large-scale hydropower plants in China to enter the South American market for the first time in large quantities.

What is the competitiveness of domestic power generation equipment in the international market? The results of the research team published in the "China Power Equipment Manufacturing Industry's International Competitiveness Survey and Evaluation" report show that domestic power generation equipment already has strong independent innovation capabilities, and its position in the international market is also constantly improving.

The report believes that through independent development, technology introduction, digestion, absorption and re-innovation, China's power generation equipment manufacturing enterprises have mastered the world's advanced technologies, and have integrated and innovated in accordance with national conditions, forming a power generation equipment manufacturing technology with Chinese characteristics and in line with China's national conditions. . Among them, the technology of coal-fired power and hydropower units is equivalent to the advanced level in foreign countries, and some technologies are also superior to foreign ones.

The facts also prove the above judgment. In the field of thermal power units, China currently has the capacity to mass produce 600,000 kilowatt-class supercritical thermal power units. The latter's unit coal consumption is only 276 grams, which is 2 grams less than the international general design value and reaches the world's advanced level. In terms of hydropower generating units, the domestically produced 700,000 kilowatt hydropower units represented by the Three Gorges Projects were successfully put into operation, marking that China’s hydropower generating units have reached the world’s advanced level in manufacturing and ended the history of relying on imports.

Sun Fengming, consultant of the China National Machinery Industry Federation’s major technical equipment office, said that the 32 units of the Three Gorges Project have 16 units independently designed and manufactured in China. The unit's maximum efficiency is over 95%, which is 2% higher than that of imported units. All-air cooling and evaporative cooling technologies with independent intellectual property rights are applied creatively to hydropower generating units, bringing the innovation of new cooling technologies for large-scale hydropower units in China to the forefront of the world.

In addition, after technological transformation, the processing equipment of China's power generation equipment manufacturing enterprises has reached the world's leading level. For example, in terms of processing equipment, it already has world-class equipment such as large-scale heavy-duty machining centers, large-scale heavy-duty CNC machine tools, etc. In terms of test equipment, it has 3,000 tons of thrust bearing test stands, high-energy hydraulic test stands, large-scale evaporative cooling test stands, and air cooling. Test benches and other world advanced test equipment.

After investigation by the research group, compared with the famous power generation equipment manufacturing enterprises in the United States, Japan, South Korea and other countries, China's power generation equipment manufacturing enterprises represented by Dongfang Electric, Shanghai Electric and Harbin Electric Power Group have jumped to the “second group”. It means that Chinese companies' competitiveness in R&D, manufacturing, complete sets, sales, and service has exceeded that of Bharat in India, Doosan in South Korea, etc., and is at the same level as Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Toshiba, and Hitachi.

Suggest

Should promote enterprises to extend the industrial chain

Obviously, whether the company's existing structural adjustment or forward-looking technology research involves the transformation of the entire industrial structure. This means that companies alone cannot work hard. The government should strengthen coordination and management and accelerate the progress of power generation equipment companies in structural adjustment, basic research, and other aspects.

Promoting the expansion of enterprises to the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain means uniting all parties and shaping the industrial cluster. According to the supporting relationship between the upstream and downstream of the power generation equipment, accelerate structural adjustments, corporate alliances, and industrial restructuring, and shape the advantages of industrial clusters through policy guidance and market forces, and realize the integration of scientific research, design, manufacturing, complete service, finance, and engineering construction. Only in this way can we Create an internationally competitive industrial chain and large enterprise groups. At the same time, we should actively seek cooperation with foreign companies, learn from and make use of the mature sales channels and business models of multinational companies, rely on the advantages of domestic companies, form a community of interests, and expand the "going out" approach.

To promote the expansion of enterprises to the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain, the pace of localization of key materials and large castings and forgings should also be accelerated. To make our country's power generation equipment truly powerful, we should speed up the pace of localization of key materials and large-scale castings and forgings. To expand the industry chain upstream and downstream, increase support for steel and metallurgical industries, and carry out targeted localization research and development of special materials and professional castings and forgings. The government should organize multi-industry joint research to break the foreign technology monopoly.

It is of utmost importance to promote the expansion of enterprises to the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain and establish an industrial common technology research institution. Reorganize and integrate existing resources in the field of domestic power generation equipment, set up several national laboratories for general technology of power generation equipment manufacturing and national engineering technology research centers, and focus on research and development of industrial original technologies, common technologies, and strategic key technologies to form a High-level, capable research team. The government should strive to build a common technology R&D platform combining production, learning, and research, and focus on the development of industrial commonality and forward-looking technologies and strategic key technologies, and break the existing technology that cannot be shared and the individual companies are fighting alone. The sharing of resources and results will create conditions and lay the foundation for building a Chinese enterprise group that can compete with multinational companies, and create and enhance the overall innovation capability of China's power generation equipment industry.

trend

Power generation equipment is the focus of power equipment energy saving

Premier Wen Jiabao pointed out in his government work report for the two national conferences this year that it is necessary to vigorously promote energy conservation and emission reduction in industries and transportation. This direction is in line with the low-carbon economy, and in fact points the way for the development of the power equipment manufacturing industry.

As we all know, the proportion of energy consumption and resource consumption in the equipment manufacturing industry itself is very small. However, the products manufactured by the equipment manufacturing industry are large consumers of energy, especially power generation equipment and boilers used in the field of power generation, and are also large consumers of energy. According to statistics, 21 kinds of mechanical and electrical products, such as fans, motors, pumps, transformers, welding machines, and electric furnaces, account for 70% of the country's electricity consumption. The energy consumption of power generation equipment and industrial boilers accounts for two-thirds of China’s energy consumption. Due to high consumption and high carbon emissions, how power generation equipment companies provide products with low energy consumption becomes particularly important.

Reducing the consumption of resources and pollution is the most direct route to the practice of a low-carbon economy. In the production process, it is more necessary to use some technical means to control the consumption and waste generated by the power generation equipment itself. For example, how can the residual heat of the power generation equipment be burnt, and how can the gas from the steelmaking and boiler discharge be used twice? Providing comprehensive utilization of resources and end-of-environment management and recycling equipment is one of the methods to reduce consumption.

In its “Analysis on the Development Direction of Power Generation Equipment in the World,” CIC Advisors recommended that thermal power equipment companies should actively develop power generation equipment with high efficiency, low pollution, low energy consumption, and low cost, and pay attention to the development of new clean coal power generation technologies. The current major development trends include the use of 600,000 to 800,000 kilowatts of thermal power units with stand-alone capacity; large-capacity supercritical units with 600,000 kilowatts or more of stand-alone capacity are widely used in industrialized countries; large-capacity, high-efficiency gas turbine power generation The rapid development of the unit; the development of air-cooled generating units and cogeneration units for heat generation; the automation level of the unit operation continues to increase; and the development and use of new high-efficiency combustion technologies, coal gasification technologies, high-temperature gas turbines, atmospheric pressure, and pressurized flow Beds will have great development.