- Wind power companies fear Chinese competition
- The state of Tencent Music after tough regulation
- Huawei posts high profits
- Shanghai settles into lockdown
- Coal producer to supply more green energy
- StratCom warns against rising disinformation
- Profile: Joern-Carsten Gottwald, professor for East Asia politics
Low-priced competition from the Far East has already been the downfall of several German industries. Televisions, cameras, solar cells, raw materials for antibiotics, toys. This pattern is so deeply rooted that fears about it quickly flare up. Now, the Chinese government is ramping up its subsidy machinery to pave the way to the EU for its own wind turbine manufacturers. Lush profits beckon in Europe. After all, the huge undertaking of breaking away from geopolitically and climate-politically damaging energy sources is in motion. But all is not lost for companies like Vestas and Gamesa, analyzes Nico Beckert. A 100-meter-long rotor for a wind turbine cannot simply be packed into a container like a solar cell.
China’s tough regulation of Internet companies (the “tech crackdown”) is also perceived as something rather sinister in the West. Isn’t the CP consolidating its power in this way? In fact, the motivations are very similar to those of Western regulators, for whom the power of individual companies goes too far. One example last year was Tencent, whose music streaming division has created a monopoly. Frank Sieren has taken a look at the impact of the breakup of the cartel of Tencent subsidiaries. As a result, there are now more pieces of the pie for everyone: Competitors have breathing room – and even for Tencent, things didn’t go as badly as feared.
Last year, Huawei made more profit than ever before. At first glance, this comes as a surprise. After all, US sanctions had brought the company’s smartphone division to its knees. But Huawei is not just a provider of electronics for end customers. You will find all background information on this surprising profit surge in our analysis.
The lockdown of Shanghai is also a topic today. DHL has suspended cargo operations at its Pudong hub. All citizens have to be tested twice. Only China is able to keep 26 million inhabitants of a bustling metropolis in their homes.
Finn Mayer-Kuckuk
Feature
China’s wind industry heads for the global market
The European Union wants to expand renewable energies faster as a result of the Russian war in Ukraine. And wind power plays a major role. By 2030, 480 gigawatts of wind capacity are to be connected to the grid. Before the Ukraine shock, only 450 gigawatts were projected. The 2030 target has thus been increased by an additional 30 gigawatts.
So these are golden times for the European wind power industry – one might think. But the competition from China is pushing stronger on the global market and could profit from Europe’s wind power expansion. The European industry is therefore already warning of a loss of market share. However, a repeated disaster like the complete elimination of the German solar industry by overwhelming competitors from the Far East is not to be expected.
China’s wind industry has grown rapidly in recent years. Half of the wind turbine components manufactured worldwide are produced in China. Six of the ten largest manufacturers come from the People’s Republic. Since 2019, Europe’s annual imports of wind turbines from China have almost doubled from €211 million to €411 million last year. European competitors are faltering at the same time. Four of five European manufacturers reported losses last year. As a result, they are closing factories and cutting jobs. In Germany alone, more than 50,000 jobs have been lost in the wind industry over the past six years, according to industry data.
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