After The "Rush To Install" Of Wind Power, The Price Of Wind Turbine Has Been Cut, And The Manufacturers Have Broken Through By Reducing The Cost Under The "Internal Volume" Of The Industry

? ? ? ? When the industry is still exclaiming that the price of wind turbine has been cut down, the bidding information of wind turbine procurement for some wind power projects recently announced by national energy group clearly transmits a signal: the bid winning price of a single machine falling below 2600 yuan / kW is really coming.

? ? ? Recently, the State Energy Group announced 11 wind power projects, including the third phase wind power project in Linshu, Shandong Province, Huanan Gongxin wind power project in Heilongjiang Province, and chugula wind power project in Inner Mongolia, with a total of 651.4 MW. Among them, the lowest single unit price of the bid is 2576 yuan / kW.

? ? ? The 21st century economic report reporter noted that the bid winning project announced above was part of the bid opening project of about 1.6gw of state energy group half a month ago. At that time, nine domestic first-line wind power suppliers, including Jinfeng technology, Yuanyuan energy, Mingyang intelligent, Guodian united power, Sany Heavy energy, etc., competed fiercely.

The continuous low price makes the wind turbine price become a sensitive topic in the industry once again, and causes differences. A complete machine manufacturer told reporters of the 21st century economic report that this is a low price competition forced to follow up. However, some industry analysts pointed out that the trend of large-scale wind turbine and other factors brought about the cost reduction, which gave the whole machine manufacturers a low price.

However, the current downward trend of wind turbine prices has indeed exceeded industry expectations. In addition to the cost pressure brought by the rising price of raw materials in the upstream, wind turbine manufacturers are bound to break through in cost reduction.

Sensitive wind turbine prices

"We have no response to this question at the moment." When the 21st century economic report asked how to view the phenomenon that the upstream raw material prices are rising while the wind turbine prices are falling, people related to Goldwind technology said that this issue is somewhat sensitive.

In the centralized bid opening of about 1.6gw wind power projects of national energy group, Goldwind Technology participated in the bidding of the above 18 projects. According to the bid opening, the price range of Goldwind technology is from 2550 yuan / kW to 2823 yuan / kW. However, 11 projects with the information of bid winning revealed that the company failed to win the bid.

Compared with the quotations from other manufacturers of the same project, the price given by Goldwind technology is not very competitive. For example, in the 500 MW wind power project invested by Guohua in Qian'an base of Jilin Province, the bidding price of the company is 2611 yuan / kW. Over the same period, the bidding unit prices of CRRC wind power and CRRC Zhuzhou Institute were all lower than 2400 yuan / kW. Up to now, there is no public information showing the winning of this project. However, the large difference of bidding price reflects the existence of the phenomenon of low price bidding to a certain extent.

For Goldwind, it may not have predicted that the price of wind turbines would fall so quickly.

Back in mid December last year, when the bidding situation of Huaneng Group's North Shangdu 600 MW wind power project was announced, Sany Heavy energy quoted a price of 3101 yuan / kW for 5 MW tower anchor bolts, which ignited this round of "price war".

Subsequently, in the Alashan 400 MW wind power project of Shandong energy, Shanghai Electric offered a bid price of 2750 yuan / kW for 3 MW units, while Shandong CRRC offered a bid price of 3780 yuan / kW for 3 MW units, both of which broke a new low for the same type of wind turbine. This means that more and more wind turbine manufacturers have joined the ranks of low-cost competition.

Qin Haiyan, Secretary General of the wind energy professional committee of China Renewable Energy Society, told reporters that in the era of affordable Internet access, "price reduction is both inevitable and necessary."

"The price reduction must be the decrease of electricity cost per kilowatt hour, which depends on the decrease of comprehensive investment cost and the improvement of power generation efficiency. Moreover, the improvement of power generation efficiency has a larger input-output ratio. It is not only the equipment price reduction that can lead to the price reduction." Qin Haiyan called on wind power equipment manufacturers to stick to the bottom line.

In fact, the industry for the wind turbine price decline is expected. The aforementioned industry analysts told the 21st century economic report that after the "rush to install" wave of wind power industry, with the decrease of project demand increment, the price of wind turbine will drop as expected“ However, in January, the overall price was still around 3000 yuan / kW, and now the price has dropped by nearly 30%. It is doubtful whether it can continue to make profits According to the analyst.

As a cyclical industry, the change of wind turbine price is closely related to the market supply and demand. In particular, under the "rush to install tide", the industry has a high degree of prosperity, and the fan has "one price a day".

2020 is the last year of wind power subsidy. According to the notice on improving the power price policy for wind power grid issued by the national development and Reform Commission in May 2019, it is stipulated that the newly approved onshore wind power projects will fully realize the low price grid connection from January 1, 2021, and the state will no longer subsidize the newly approved onshore wind power projects. However, if the previously approved projects are completed on schedule, they can enjoy subsidies.

The announcement accelerated the final "madness" of the wind power industry. From 3000 yuan / kW to 4100 yuan / kW, the price of wind turbine will rise rapidly in 2019 and 2020.

However, after the rush to install, the low price competition reappeared rapidly.

Call for reasonable bidding

The increasingly low price competition has aroused the concern of wind turbine manufacturers' profits. Such concerns spread among investors in the secondary market.

On May 25, in response to investors' questions, Mingyang intelligent said that "the decrease of wind farm construction cost caused by the decline of wind turbine bidding price is significantly improving the competitiveness of wind power industry", but it stressed that "in the beginning of wind mechanism, the company has significantly reduced the product cost through procurement, manufacturing and technology The phenomenon of low price bidding is also a hot topic at the online performance presentation meeting held by Goldwind technology in April this year.

In recent years, as a leading domestic wind turbine enterprise, Goldwind technology has encountered a decline in the gross profit margin of wind turbine business. At the end of 2018, the gross profit margin of the company's wind turbine business was 19.19%, but by 2019, it shrank to 12.30%. In the first half of last year, the gross profit rate of the business fell further. Fortunately, under the "rush loading tide", its final gross profit margin rose to 14.58% at the end of the year.

According to the company's business objectives in 2021, Goldwind technology expects the gross profit rate of wind turbines this year to be 18%.

However, such a goal may be under pressure. When the price of wind turbine in the industry goes down, the rising price of raw materials in the upstream also increases the cost of enterprises. Cao Yang, a senior analyst of Dongzheng futures, believes that the demand driven by wind power development for glass fiber and copper is stronger than other materials.

At present, the prices of the main upstream raw materials used by wind turbines are on the rise. As of May 26, the price of Lungshan copper was reported at US $9958 / T, still at a historical high. At the same time, steel prices have also jumped recently, and the profit margin of wind power equipment has been further compressed.

In fact, for the whole wind power industry, with the emergence of the trend of large-scale models, the weight reduction of wind turbine unit power brings savings to the procurement cost of parts and components, which is continuously promoting the cost reduction of wind turbine.

"Through the localization of supply chain, independent design and development, technological progress and the increase of single unit capacity, the cost per kilowatt of wind turbine can be effectively reduced." Tian Qingjun, senior vice president of vision energy, said in an interview with 21st century economic reporter that benign price competition is conducive to further reducing the cost of the whole machine enterprise and upstream and downstream, so as to reduce the cost of wind power and improve the competitiveness.

But low price competition is regarded as the performance of internal market competition of wind power industry. Therefore, the voice against excessive price competition has always existed.

"We do not recommend excessive price war, irrational low price competition will damage the healthy development of the industry, burying quality risks." Tian Qingjun told reporters, "we call on the industry's leading power developers not to encourage the lowest bid, pay attention to the whole life cycle cost of wind power, and improve the score proportion of technology, quality and innovation in bid evaluation."

It is worth noting that among the 651.4 MW wind power projects announced by the state energy group, the bidding price of the first winning candidate is higher than that of the second candidate, indicating that the price is not the only bid evaluation standard for the third phase wind power project in Linshu of Shandong Province, the second phase of dasuzhuang wind power project, chugula wind power project in Inner Mongolia, and langsabula wind power project in Inner Mongolia.

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