Siemens Gamesa may be a company headquartered in Spain that is majority-owned by German parent Siemens Energy, but its production for wind turbines on land is increasingly taking place in China.

The giant manufacturing hub in Tianjin in its fiscal year 2020 churned out more than 2.3GW in onshore turbines, which accounted for 30% of the 7.7GW in the company’s global sales volume of wind turbines on land in the year.

The wind turbine market in China itself has historically been dominated by local suppliers, but the OEM nevertheless each year on average has been able to sell 700-800MW there, Siemens Gamesa’s new onshore wind chief for Asia-Pacific, Paulo Soares, told Recharge.

“China is a very large, very big country. In order to be competitive, we built our manufacturing facilities there,” Soares said in an interview before taking off to Beijing from Hamburg. “Our main facility for onshore globally is in Tianjin.”

But the massive factory, alongside a blade factory in Shanghai (which is mostly for offshore, though), plays a far greater role for the manufacturer than catering for the local market.

Asia-Pacific and global hub

“For us, China also plays a much more important strategic role. We see it as our manufacturing hub.”

Before being merged with Siemens Wind, Spanish OEM Gamesa in 2006 set up shop in Tianjin, lured into China as domestic support policies were in place, while local content requirements otherwise would have closed off the giant Chinese market for the company (at least initially).

But the company soon started to use its manufacturing footprint there to supply other markets in the APAC region at first, and eventually across the globe.

“China is cost competitive and has a sound supplier network. You can use Chinese turbines pretty much everywhere. Because the quality is the same in line with our global standards,” Soares explained.

“They are certified, the partners are all there. We have many of our big suppliers located there. I wouldn’t portray China as a Chinese, hub, or an Asia-Pacific hub, it is a global hub.”

Siemens Gamesa has been producing onshore models in the 2-4MW range in Tianjin, and is now in the process of localizing its 5.X onshore platform there, in order to provide more competitive and larger turbines to its customers in Asia-Pacific.

Other wind turbine makers are also increasingly shifting production to countries with lower labour costs and / or large domestic markets.

Nordex - like Siemens Gamesa an OEM with a big manufacturing footprint both in Germany and Spain - has announced it plans to serve its international markets outside Europe from India in the future, where it is ramping up its manufacturing to become a global production hub with a capacity of 4GW.

Vietnam support talks

Siemens Gamesa’s larger turbines will come in handy for a new 145MW order for the Yang Trung wind project in Vietnam that is expected to be commissioned in the second half of this year.

The manufacturer will supply 29 of its SG 5.0-145 turbines to the project in Gia Lai province in central Vietnam, which will be one of the largest energy projects in the region, Siemens Gamesa told Recharge exclusively.

Developers are currently running against the clock to get projects completed before a cut-off date towards year-end when Vietnam’s current feed-in tariff (FIT) system will end.

Asked, whether the wind industry has been successful in negotiations with the Vietnamese government over a possible extension of the current FIT regime, or another support scheme, Soares said Siemens Gamesa doesn’t get directly involved in those talks.

“But there are, of course, discussions about extending the FIT for one more period, or keeping policies in place, put new policies in place that allow the business to continue.”

Wind

Giant China wind turbine factory set as global Siemens Gamesa hub: APAC chief