Chinese demand drives up global wind turbine orders in H1 of 2024

Wood Mackenzie reported in a Monday report that global onshore wind turbines orders reached 91.2 gigawatts in the first half, an increase of 23% on the previous year. This was due to a higher demand from China's north region in the second quarter.

Why it's important

China has the largest wind turbine production capacity in the world compared to Europe or the United States. Western OEMs are struggling to keep up with China's pricing and availability advantages.

According to the Wood Mackenzie Report, the global order intake for windmills in the second quarter was 66 GW, mainly due to Chinese demand.

CONTEXT

Siemens Energy, one of the top wind energy companies in Western Europe, highlighted earlier this year that the industry was struggling with delays, equipment issues and inflation.

The report stated that Western OEMs were struggling due to intense competition and modest demand, contributing only 13% of global orders in the first half year.

Orders outside China dropped by 16% and fell 42% in the U.S.

The global onshore sector saw a rise in order volume during H1, but the offshore industry has seen a decline of almost 38% from the same period last year.

KEY QUOTE

Luke Lewandowski is vice president of global renewables at Wood Mackenzie. He said, "Chinese OEMs are continuing to break records in terms of order intake, both domestically as well as abroad."

He added that the offshore market was also facing "challenging economies (which) continue delay the conversion of firm orders." (Reporting and editing by Janane Vekatraman in Bengaluru. Pooja Menon is based in Bengaluru.

(source: Reuters)