Electrical Equipment / Components & Telecoms

In the past 2022, China's exports of new energy products grew significantly, especially photovoltaic. According to customs data, in the first 11 months of 2022, China's exports of mechanical and electrical products, especially new energy products, grew rapidly, with the export volume of solar cells growing by 74.3% year on year.

While overseas demand for photovoltaic products is strong, China's domestic capacity is expanding rapidly, and global efforts to develop photovoltaic energy are also increasing. While the industry is flying in the wind, the changing factors are also increasing. To enhance the global competitiveness of photovoltaic enterprises, they need to plan ahead.

Multi factor heating photovoltaic outlet

When entering the production workshop of Trina Solar (Suqian) Technology Co., Ltd., the automatic production line runs at full capacity. In the waving of the robot arm, on average, a piece of solar photovoltaic cell that has gone through nine processes is offline every 0.98 seconds, and will be sent to Brazil, Japan, Malaysia and other countries and regions. It is understood that the company has established a "super factory" of crystalline silicon photovoltaic with four areas. In 2022, the company's products will be sold to more than 110 countries and regions, and the output value is expected to exceed 30 billion yuan.

This is a microcosm of the hot photovoltaic export scene. In 2022, the global energy crisis makes the overseas market demand for photovoltaic products increase sharply, and the performance of related products is relatively outstanding.

On December 1, Wang Bohua, honorary chairman of China Photovoltaic Industry Association, introduced at the 2022 China Photovoltaic Industry Annual Conference that from January to October, the total export of photovoltaic products (silicon wafers, cell chips, modules) exceeded 44 billion dollars, an increase of 90.3% year on year, a record high. Among them, the demand for PV in the European market continues to rise, and the share of module exports to the European market has exceeded half of the total module exports; In the South American market, Brazil also showed strong demand for photovoltaic.

According to customs data, in the first 11 months of 2022, the export of mechanical and electrical products reached 12.47 trillion yuan, up 8.4% year on year; According to customs data, the export of electric manned vehicles, lithium batteries and solar cells increased by 128%, 86.6% and 74.3% respectively.

Wang Jianhui, a senior researcher of industrial economy, said that the crisis in Ukraine has aggravated the global energy and food crisis. After entering winter, the contradiction between energy supply and demand is further highlighted. Natural gas prices in many places in Europe have hit new highs, generating strong demand for new alternative energy. In addition, the imbalance of the global energy structure and the accelerated promotion of "dual carbon" have also boosted the demand for new energy, which is expected to continue.

When looking forward to the global photovoltaic industry in 2023, CICC also believes that the prosperity of the global photovoltaic sector will continue. It is expected that the global installed capacity will achieve a 50% growth rate in 2022, and it is expected to continue to grow by 30%~50% in 2023 and close to the upper end of the range.

Yan Min, director of the Macroeconomic Research Office of the Economic Forecast Department of the National Information Center, believes that the export of mechanical and electrical products, such as lithium batteries and solar cells, has increased significantly. While demonstrating the international competitiveness of China's related products, it also reflects that China's export structure is moving towards the middle and high end, which is conducive to the optimization of the trade structure, thus promoting the upgrading of the industrial structure.

According to customs data, in the first 11 months of 2022, the efficiency of China's photovoltaic silicon cell laboratory has broken the world record 11 times. As of November, 87 photovoltaic enterprises have won the title of "specialized, refined, special and new", mainly in the fields of battery chips, inverters, junction boxes, equipment manufacturers, photovoltaic glass, EVA, packaging materials, etc.

Breaking through the competition requires more technological innovation

"The biggest challenge we are facing is increasingly fierce competition." In view of the development trend of China's photovoltaic industry, Wang Bohua said that photovoltaic enterprises will face competition pressures from both domestic and foreign aspects: on the one hand, the domestic photovoltaic industry is showing continuous production expansion and cross-border phenomenon, and on the other hand, the photovoltaic manufacturing side of competition among major countries, which requires Chinese photovoltaic enterprises to pay enough attention.

The strong market demand drives the strong growth of photovoltaic product manufacturing end. According to customs data, from January to October, China's new PV installed capacity increased 98.7% year on year, the highest new installed capacity in history. According to incomplete statistics, from the beginning of last year to November of this year, there were more than 480 photovoltaic projects planned in China, some of which were constructed by stages. In the future, they will be launched according to market changes. In addition, according to incomplete statistics, more than 25 non photovoltaic listed companies have successively announced their involvement in the photovoltaic field during the year, and the total investment is expected to reach more than 100 billion yuan.

In terms of the spatial layout of the domestic photovoltaic industry, Qian Jing, vice president of Jinko Energy, believes that the manufacturing industry used to be concentrated in the southeast coastal areas with intensive talents and sufficient funds, and may move to the west in the future. "Most of the production bases will be in the northwest and southwest regions, which will bring great changes to China's unbalanced economic development."

At the same time, in the context of the global energy problem and the accelerated promotion of "dual carbon", the overseas market pays more attention to the local photovoltaic industry, which also makes the competition more intense. Wang Bohua said that China's photovoltaic industry continues to rank first in the world in terms of scale, but also faces some challenges. In particular, some countries and regions have raised the development of new energy manufacturing to the government level with goals, measures and steps. "The United States, the European Union and India, for example, not only support local enterprises, but also restrict the development of their domestic industries, which should attract our close attention and make more efforts in the level of technological innovation."

Bai Ming, the deputy director of the International Market Research Institute of the Research Institute of the Ministry of Commerce, said that in terms of photovoltaic development, China has the advantages of low cost, strong technological innovation and large industrial and market scale. In the face of a more competitive environment, it is necessary to ensure the orderly development of domestic industries, and at the same time, it is necessary to speed up "going global" to further enhance the global competitiveness of photovoltaic enterprises.

How should Chinese PV enterprises continue to maintain competitiveness and leadership and lead the development of the global PV industry? Recently, Gao Jifan, Chairman of Trina Solar, said at the Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) Shanghai Summit in 2022 that more comprehensive open cooperation is the key, and it is necessary to constantly develop higher value products, provide better solutions, and work with global partners to build a new ecosystem of photovoltaic industry.