under the wave of energy transformation, global transformer production is expanding. hitachi energy: accelerate investment in the next two years
2024-09-22
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under the wave of global energy transformation, transformers, one of the core equipment in the power system, are in a strong "seller's market". "i didn't expect transformers to be so popular, and even became the key to whether many projects can be completed on schedule." zhao yongzhan, who was just appointed as hitachi energy's global executive vice president and president of greater china on july 1 this year, said.
zhao yongzhan previously served as the head of abb's electrical business in china and has long been involved in the transformer market. in july 2020, swiss industrial group abb announced the official completion of the transfer of its power grid business to japanese industrial group hitachi, and hitachi abb power grids co., ltd. officially started operations; in july 2021, hitachi abb power grids was renamed hitachi energy. in the field of transformers, hitachi energy is now the world's largest manufacturer.
"after hitachi acquired the power grid business, it had high expectations for our growth. hitachi's energy business has grown very rapidly in recent years, doubling in the past few years, which is also based on changes in the overall market environment." zhao yongzhan told a reporter from the paper (www.thepaper.cn) that a relatively objective situation at present is that the global energy transformation is leading to insufficient production capacity in related industries.
it is worth noting that in order to meet the surging market demand, hitachi energy plans to invest $1.5 billion globally by 2027 to increase transformer production capacity. "overall, the investment is global, and i personally think that china has a very good foundation." zhao yongzhan explained that the transformer manufacturing industry needs to slowly accumulate experience. in other words, the maturity of the entire factory is very important.
"we have caught up with this wave. the domestic factories have a good foundation and are highly valued by the headquarters. many of the operating indicators here are also ranked at the top internally, so this gives the headquarters great confidence to continue investing in these factories."
in fact, zhao yongzhan mentioned that hitachi energy has invested us$3 billion in manufacturing and factory expansion since 2020 to expand its production capacity, including several factories in china.
shanghai hitachi energy power transformer co., ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "shanghai hitachi energy"), which has reached its 30th anniversary, is one of the mature factories mentioned above. hitachi energy has built multiple production bases in different regions around the world, but the shanghai factory has unique advantages. this factory, founded in 1994, mainly provides dry-type transformer products, and also has three technologies: resibloc® (wound type), vcc (vacuum casting type), and vpi (vacuum impregnation dry-type transformer). globally, only a few transformer factories can achieve such "technical versatility".
it is worth noting that china's transformer exports are also extremely popular at the moment. according to the data from the general administration of customs, china's transformer exports in august 2024 amounted to 4.216 billion yuan, an increase of 5.9% compared with the previous month (month-on-month) and an increase of 37.7% compared with the same period last year (year-on-year). from january to august this year, the cumulative export value of transformers was 28.671 billion yuan, an increase of 28.4% year-on-year.
zhang jianhua, senior vice president of hitachi energy china and head of the transformer business unit in greater china, told the paper and other media that transformers play a very core role in the entire power system, and the current global energy transformation process has created many new opportunities for the transformer market.
zhang jianhua believes that for chinese factories including shanghai hitachi energy, the transformer export situation continues to improve. on the one hand, taking shanghai hitachi energy as an example, the "comprehensiveness" of the factory in dry-type transformer technology is its great advantage; on the other hand, following the pace of chinese companies going overseas such as the "belt and road initiative", hitachi energy has carried out more than 1,000 cooperation projects with more than 200 chinese companies in more than 80 countries and regions in recent years.
he also emphasized, "hitachi energy has another very big advantage. we have our own sales and service networks in every other country." zhang jianhua said that even considering the factors of tariffs imposed by some countries in the world, chinese products are still competitive, otherwise they will not be able to "go global."
"judging from the performance from january to august this year, our transformer business has maintained very good growth. of course, this is not only due to export growth, we have also achieved very good growth in the domestic market," zhang jianhua added.
it is worth mentioning that zhang jianhua also told the reporter of the paper that globally, hitachi energy's r&d investment in 2030 will be at least twice as much as it is now. "this means that we will make targeted investments in many areas based on customer needs, including new needs."
he concluded that r&d will focus on two aspects: first, based on global trends and focusing on global advantages; second, in each market segment, including china, to conduct r&d for specific needs. "in the past, the local r&d team for transformers in china was a small team. according to the current plan, this team will have at least 70 people by 2030."
zhang jianhua also mentioned that many innovations in the chinese market are not available in other parts of the world, "because the chinese market is developing very fast in some areas. for example, dry-type transformers used in offshore wind power. some applications abroad are still being explored, discussed, and slowly verified. we have already increased from 35 kv to 66 kv, and may even reach 110 kv." the high-speed rail sector can also provide related companies in the industry chain with unique global innovation advantages.
zhao yongzhan emphasized to the reporter of the paper, "we are no longer just talking about localization or indigenization. sometimes local innovation needs to be globalized. we need to bring local technology to the world and turn it into a universal global product or technical solution. some of these things are already underway."
thepaper.cn reporter he liping
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