Why Does Guang Wei Decide "Lucheng"? Reveal The Three Core Points Of The Baotou Large Wire Carbon Fiber Project

Under the guidance of the spirit of "promoting economic development with high quality and adhering to the priority of ecology and green development", this summer is destined to leave a heavy color in the process of promoting the development of high quality economy in Inner Mongolia. What we need to do now and next is to take action.

In the midsummer, the Mongolia plateau with an average altitude of more than 1580 meters is cooler. The "Mother River" the Yellow River has turned a big bend here and there. It flows day and night through the southern tip of Baotou in the Midwest of Inner Mongolia. In the early morning of July 19th, there was a light rain in the city of Baotou, which was dry and rainy all the year round.

In the rain, Liu Yongming, director of the Baotou City nine industrial park management committee, is in a good mood. He sighed, "it's rare. It's a good omen for rain." In fact, Liu Yongming's good mood is not only because of the rain, but also because of an important project signing.

On the afternoon of July 19th, the people's Government of Inner Mongolia, Baotou, the nine yuan industrial park management committee, the Weihai light Wei composite material Limited by Share Ltd (hereinafter referred to as "Guang Wei complex") and the Vestas wind energy technology (China) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Vista") jointly signed a ten thousand ton carbon fiber industrialization project in Baotou city. According to the agreement, several parties will jointly build a large tow carbon fiber production base for the civilian product market, more cost advantage and competitiveness in Baotou's industrial park.

With the smooth landing and subsequent commissioning of the project, it will accelerate the transformation of new and old energy resources and promote the development of high quality economy in Baotou. It is necessary to carry out the expansion for the rapid growth of customer demand. For domestic carbon fiber entering a large strand and low-cost era, further improving the cost performance of materials, and vigorously developing the industrial application market with the wind power market as the breakthrough point, it will be of great significance to further solve the key problems of "how to use it" so as to enhance the competitiveness of products in an all-round way.

Zhao Jiangtao, deputy secretary and mayor of Baotou Municipal Committee, said at the signing ceremony of the day: "Baotou is an important industrial base in China, and has its own advantages in new materials and equipment manufacturing. Baotou is also a military city. Many new materials, including carbon fiber, are widely used in the field of military industry. Without good new materials, it is impossible to have good products. Only by making use of new materials can we continuously upgrade the level of manufacturing. The carbon fiber project located in Baotou will play a very important role in upgrading the new material industry and upgrading the manufacturing level in Baotou. Baotou is also listed as a model city of renewable energy by the state. To make good use of green energy is also a way to improve the future development of the city. We are very optimistic about the future of the project. The Baotou municipal Party committee and the municipal government will give full support to this project and hope that the project will start from the project to start work, and achieve an early result as soon as possible.

Why is it settled in Baotou's industrial park?

Baotou, known as "Lucheng", has an average altitude of 1067 meters. The towering Mount Daqing and the URA mountains (bounded by the Kun Du Lun River) divide Baotou into three parts: the central mountain area, the north mountain plateau grassland and the Shannan plain. Nature has given the rich mineral materials here, and Baotou has the reputation of "the capital of rare earth". Baotou is also an important industrial city in China. It is known as "grassland steel city". However, in recent years, under the background of pushing forward the structural reform of supply side and promoting the high quality development of the economy, Baotou needs to find new kinetic energy for economic development.

As the "Pearl" of the "crown" of the new material industry, carbon fiber belongs to the "Star" product that can promote the quality of economic development.

Duan Xiaoping, vice president of China Textile Industry Federation and President of China Chemical Fiber Industry Association, pointed out that carbon fiber is an indispensable strategic new material for national economic construction. Accelerating the development of the carbon fiber industry is of great significance for promoting the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries, promoting the development of strategic emerging industries, meeting the major needs of the state and the needs of national economic construction.

However, the reality is that the "sophisticated" carbon fiber products need energy matching in the production process. The preparation process of carbon fiber carbon fiber includes pre oxidation, low temperature carbonization, high temperature carbonization and other links. It is necessary to gradually turn organic polymer fibers into carbon fibers containing more than 90% of carbon by high temperature and consume a lot of electricity. This makes energy cost account for nearly 40% of total carbon fiber production cost.

A senior member of the carbon fiber industry told reporters that the energy cost factor is one of the key factors to develop domestic civilian products carbon fiber. After more than ten years of development, the domestic carbon fiber has broken the monopoly of foreign technology, successfully solved the problem of "choking", and changed the competition pattern of the world carbon fiber industry. But objectively speaking, compared with giant enterprises such as Japan and the United States, China's carbon fiber industry still has no advantages in terms of technology, equipment, energy efficiency and energy costs. This, to a considerable extent, leads to the high cost of domestic carbon fiber products, and the overall competitive power of the market is still not strong.

"In the cost structure of civilian carbon fiber products, acrylonitrile used for the production of carbon fiber is a bulk petrochemical product, and the price change of acrylonitrile is a passive receiver. In view of the fact that the continuous improvement of technology and equipment energy efficiency needs a long-term process, reducing energy costs, especially reducing electricity prices, is a effective way to further reduce the cost of domestic carbon fibers from a practical point of view. If local governments can provide preferential tariff for policy sustainability, it is bound to form strong attraction for new projects of carbon fiber leading enterprises. Those in the industry stressed.

Baotou can indeed provide policy support in this regard. The Management Committee of Baotou nine industrial park has certain preferential policies for various new projects in land, taxation, electricity price and innovation. The reporter saw on the wall of the exhibition hall of the park, clearly stated in the electricity price column: the economic and Information Department of autonomous region and League City decided that the rare earth functional materials and industrial products in the Baotou new rare earth materials Industrial Park will be in line with the industrial policy and the production of applied products will be included in the priority transaction scope. The participation of wind and power generation will not be limited, so that the target price will reach 0.26 yuan / kWh. At the same time, there is a clear list: "strategic emerging industries with distinctive advantages to household electricity price of 0.26 yuan / kWh." Compared with the industrial electricity price of 0.6 yuan ~0.8 yuan / kWh, which is widely practiced in the main producing areas of China's carbon fiber in Jiangsu and Shandong, this price will undoubtedly have great attraction.

"If the price of industrial electricity consumed by China's carbon fiber enterprises can generally be reduced to less than 0.3 yuan / kWh, the profitable domestic carbon fiber enterprises will increase." The industry insiders said.

Against this background, the project was settled in Baotou. According to the agreement signed, the project will be divided into three phases: the total investment will be about 500 million yuan in the first phase, and 1 carbon fiber production lines of 2000 tons / year will be built, including the raw silk production workshop, carbonization workshop, and related supporting workshops and installations. The construction period is expected to be 2~3 years. According to the first phase construction, commissioning and capacity digestion, combined with market demand, the two or three phase of the project will be completed, and eventually the capacity of carbon fiber with an annual output of 10000 tons will be achieved. The project will be located in the south of weft four road south of Baotou's Industrial Park, and the total land use will be 800 mu. The project will be implemented in accordance with the principles of one planning, batch land use and batch bidding, and the first phase will be 300 mu.

"Supporting the development of the central and western regions is a national strategy. The project is selected in Baotou, is a high-quality development, will play a leading role in the demonstration, and then promote the development of high performance materials industry in Baotou. Xiaoping said.

Wang Xiulian, deputy mayor of the Baotou municipal government, said: "the project landing in Baotou is the actual action to implement the important instructions of" promoting the high quality development of the economy, adhering to the ecological priority and green development ". It is an important measure to push forward the structural reform of the supply side, cultivate strategic emerging industries and speed up the transformation of new and old energy. It is an important support for speeding up the construction of Inner Mongolia rare earth new material industrial park, filling the short board of the new material industry and upgrading the industrial chain level. The implementation of the project is of great significance for Baotou and even the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region's industrial transformation and upgrading.

From the perspective of individual emotion, Baotou has special significance for several executives of Guang Wei complex.

Lu Zhaojun, vice chairman and general manager of Guang Wei composite material, can be described by emotion as the day's mood. Lu Zhaojun has worked in Guang Wei for 25 years, and travels a lot on a regular basis. But in the early morning of July 19th, when he stood in the rain on the project land of endless green grass in Baotou's Industrial Park, he rolled up in his heart. He was born in Baotou Tu Right Banner. This is his hometown. Like Lu Zhaojun, Wang Wenyi and Inner Mongolia are also his hometown. It was also a coincidence that 17 years ago, on July 19th, Wang Wenyi, who graduated from a university in Hohhot, came to Guang Wei and worked hard and experienced. Now he has grown up to be the managing deputy general manager of Guang Wei complex.

"This investment in Baotou has also been carefully considered. This has historic significance for Guang Wei, and it has enabled me to contribute to the development of my hometown. I feel very excited and honored." Lu Zhaojun's words shared two common aspirations.

Why is the party a wind power technology giant, Vestas?

Among the parties to this agreement, the company is Vestas wind technology (China) Limited. Perhaps some people will ask why the global wind power giant Vestas will join? In fact, to some extent, it can be understood that it is precisely because of the demand pull brought by the rapid growth of carbon fiber demand by Vestas that it drives the project's landing.

Over the past decades, aerospace, especially the national defense industry, has been the most important application market of carbon fiber in the world. However, in recent years, the application of carbon fiber in the field of civil wind power has suddenly become a new highlight.

The reporter has learned that wind turbine blades are important parts of wind power generation units. The trend of wind power blades in recent years is becoming more and more obvious, but the blades made of traditional materials are difficult to meet the performance requirements of large wind turbines. The blades with a length of more than 42 meters must be made of carbon fiber or carbon glass material with higher strength and lighter weight, so as to ensure the strength of the blades. In this way, the demand for carbon fiber from the blades of the global wind power is increasing rapidly.

Relevant statistics show that in 2018, the world's total demand for carbon fiber 92 thousand and 600 tons, the wind power market accounted for about 23% of the total, has been ranked 23% in the aerospace field. In the next few years, the annual growth rate of demand for carbon fiber in wind power market will still be around 10%.

As a leader in the global wind power industry technology, as a giant in 80 countries and regions of the world, it is clear that Vestas has grasped the opportunity for this global wind power market to flourish. Carbon beam is a main structural material of Vestas new generation wind turbine blade. It plays a vital role in reducing blade weight, increasing blade stiffness, increasing blade length and improving power generation efficiency. China is one of Vestas's most important emerging markets. Since 2014, Vestas has introduced advanced technology of 2 megawatt and 4 megawatt platform fan products to China, and has increased the flexibility of operation and maintenance services to an unprecedented level to meet customer's operation and maintenance strategies.

Moreover, Vestas has a special feeling for Inner Mongolia. According to reports, before 2012, Vestas had factories in Hohhot to produce wind turbine blades. The original cooperation between Guang Wei complex and Vestas also came from this factory. Around 2007, Guang Wei complex supplies carbon fiber prepreg products to its factories in Hohhot. Although the plant was shut down in 2012, Vestas' confidence in China's wind power market and the judgement of Inner Mongolia's energy dominance in wind power have not changed.

In 2014, after the initial communication with Vestas and the certification and evaluation of the project, Guang Wei composite material officially launched the wind power carbon beam project. In 2017, Guang Wei composites launched the global delivery of products in the Vestas global leaf factory. During the year, the production line increased to 30, the annual capacity increased to 4 million 500 thousand meters, the supply value reached 260 million yuan, and became one of the most important carbon beam suppliers in the world. In 2018, the prestige composite material emerged from Vestas in about 2800 suppliers around the world. It won the "2018 best supplier award". It only supplied Vestas wind turbine carbon beam, and consumed more than 4000 tons of carbon fiber during the year. In 2019, the annual output of wind power carbon beams increased by 7 million 500 thousand meters.

"For a long time, our company is our trusted partner to support our development. We believe that this solid support will win more opportunities for the development of the company. An important reason for our company's success is that we use carbon fiber wind power blades. " As Vestas Asia Pacific vice president of procurement, Christopher Kate's mood looks good on that day. In recent years, he deeply felt that in the rapid development of the global new energy industry, the extensive use of carbon fiber wind power blades enabled the company to further reduce the cost of power supply and improve product reliability.

The expanding business of Vestas makes it urgent to rely on a strong and trustworthy supplier of carbon fiber suppliers to continuously meet the company's demand for rapid growth of carbon beam products.

"Now, we are willing to introduce technology to support the development of light industry complex in Baotou. We have the will and ability to work together to build Baotou into a modern energy industry base." Christopher Kate said.

It is worth noting that how to solve the two key factors of continuous improvement of competitiveness of domestic carbon fiber is to solve the problem of "going out". The new expansion project of Guang Wei complex belongs to the first big user to lock Vestas, and then layout and expand production. In this sense, this idea of "order type" expansion will have an important exemplary significance for the whole industry.

Why do we choose the big tow route that is difficult to chew?

According to the agreement, the project will lock large tow carbon fibers, which is also of great significance. 1K in the production of carbon fiber refers to a single strand of carbon fiber containing 1000 monofilaments. According to the industry standard, the carbon fibers in each bundle of carbon fibers whose fibers are less than 48K, such as 1K and 3k, belong to small tow carbon fibers, and the carbon fibers in each bundle of carbon fibers are larger than or equal to 48K.

In the international carbon fiber industry, big tow has always been considered as a "hard nut to crack", but it is one of the key technologies. Especially for domestic carbon fiber to further enhance competitiveness, how to reduce costs and improve product cost performance is another key factor in solving the problem of "going out". Many important factors that affect the cost reduction include industrialization and scale production capacity, technological level, and high energy cost. If reducing the cost of energy is a practical means to solve the problem of cost reduction, the use of large wire bundle preparation technology is one of the long-term means to solve the problem of cost reduction.

From the current development trend of Japanese and American star carbon fiber enterprises, the preparation technology of large wire bundle carbon fiber is one of the key technologies to achieve low cost. The biggest advantage is that under the same production conditions, the single line capacity of the carbon fiber can be greatly increased, the production efficiency will be higher, and the production cost can be reduced by more than 30% and the cost is lower. From the international market, the large wire bundle carbon fiber is mainly used in wind power blades, energy buildings and other industrial markets. According to relevant forecasts, the average annual demand growth of large wire bundles carbon fiber will exceed 16% in the next few years.

The industry insiders briefed reporters: "low cost has always been an important direction for the development of carbon fiber industry. As a new emerging strategic material, the cost has always been an obstacle to the expansion of the application scope and market scale of the carbon fiber. The continuous pursuit of lightweight and energy saving, environmental protection and high efficiency is the driving force to promote the continuous reduction of the cost of carbon fiber products and the wider application in the field of civilian products. With the application of low cost carbon fiber on wind turbine blades and the demonstration effect brought by rapid expansion, the development and technological progress of low cost carbon fiber based downstream civilian products will be greatly promoted. As an important technical way to achieve low cost of carbon fiber, large wire bundle carbon fiber is an important technical guarantee for the future development of carbon fiber civilian product business.

In response, Lu Zhaojun said that the company has always adhered to the "two high one low" carbon fiber development path of high strength, high modulus and low cost. In terms of "two high", Guang Wei has made great breakthroughs and achieved the industrialization of T1000 and M55J grade carbon fiber. However, in terms of low cost, Guang Wei complex has not yet expanded its industrialization scale. At the same time, in order to implement the "521" development strategy of Guang Wei complex and meet the demand for rapid growth of wind power carbon beams by partners, Vestas thought that Baotou had significant energy advantages, natural wind energy advantages and favorable investment environment after many investigations. Therefore, the company decided to develop a large tow low cost carbon fiber industry with global competitiveness in Baotou.

"At present, the main customers of the global carbon beam business are mainly concentrated in Vestas, and China's wind power plant is also working hard to develop wind power blades based on carbon fiber applications. In the next few years, the global carbon beam business still has huge room for development. In the next two years, the demand for large tow carbon fiber will exceed 10000 tons in the next two years. This strong demand from Vestas has become the core driving force for our expansion of new projects. Guang Wei composite material official said.

In fact, the layout of large wire bundles is of great importance to the complex. After the project is successfully put into operation, it will effectively meet the demand for large tow carbon fiber in light carbon composites and other civilian products business, help its civilian products business to further enhance its profitability, further realize the development of the two line prosperity of "military and civilian business", improve the layout of the whole industry chain in the field of carbon fiber, and consolidate the leading position of the company in the domestic carbon fiber industry. From the perspective of the overall development of domestic carbon fiber, leading enterprises will lock large tow in more large-scale new projects, which will undoubtedly have a significant inspiration and demonstration significance for low cost and mass production of domestic civilian carbon fiber and vigorously expand the industrial market.

Perhaps the big tow carbon fiber project, which is acknowledged to be hard to "chew", will have a deeper connotation after truly realizing large-scale industrialization, because it will effectively consolate a group of carbon fiber practitioners who are harboured by "industry and serve the country".

"All along the way, from breaking international monopoly to independent technology and industrialization level step by step, from the loss of the whole industry to leading enterprises to achieve profits, from the supply of military products to meet the needs of the field to gradually open up in the civilian product market, domestic carbon fiber development in these years is really not easy. A generation of materials and equipment. The future of the leading enterprises basically determines the future of the domestic carbon fiber industry, and also affects the future of China's high-end equipment manufacturing industry to a considerable extent. In the past two years, from the hard road of "from being strong to strong", the domestic carbon fiber, which takes the leading enterprises as the leading force, has been shrinking rapidly with the gap between the carbon fiber industry in Japan and the United States. We look forward to the leading and leading enterprises of domestic carbon fiber enterprises to become bigger and stronger, and look forward to the early arrival of the day when they can really compete with the world's carbon fiber enterprises. Speaking of this, the mood of the senior practitioners of carbon fiber suddenly excited.