All that glisters... Goldwind profits plummet despite China's green boom

Chinese turbine giant has grown at breakneck speed but earnings are lagging

Cosmo Sanderson

Journalist

Third quarter profits at Chinese wind turbine manufacturer Goldwind plummeted 98% on a comparison with the same three months of 2022, even as rocketing global sales among Chinese OEMs have left competitors and governments in Western nations increasingly rattled.

Goldwind reported today (Thursday) that net profits attributable to shareholders had fallen to 9.4m Chinese yuan ($1.3m) in the third quarter, crashing from 445m yuan in the same period last year.

The company's latest quarterly report stated that net profits from January to July this year had also plummeted by 47% to 1.2bn yuan, down from 2.4bn yuan for the same period in 2022.

The results come in a year that Goldwind was named as the world’s top wind supplier in terms of volume by BloombergNEF, pipping Denmark’s Vestas to the crown.

The Global Wind Energy Council released an estimate that Chinese turbine makers supplied nearly 60% of installed capacity worldwide last year.

Goldwind, along with several other Chinese OEMs, has increased its turbine sales in a range of global markets, recently making new inroads in the Brazil the Middle East and Asia.

A decision to drop Xinjiang – the Chinese province from which it hails – from its name earlier this year was also said to be a reflection of its global ambitions.

Goldwind has also funneled resources into developing more advanced and larger turbines, including a 12MW onshore turbine and recent deployment of the world's largest operating offshore turbin in the shape of a a 16MW design with a 252-metre rotor diameter ror state-run power giant China Three Gorges.

But Western concerns about companies such as Goldwind have focused on the generous commercial financing terms such companies are said to offer, as well as a pursuit of strategic targets that can seem to emphasise scale and sales volumes more than returns.

The perceived threat of Chinese turbine manufacturers, with their large turbines and ability to offer more attractive commercial terms, has prompted the EU to launch a wind power action plan to protect its own loss-making OEMs, although without yet activating any trade rules.

Fierce price competition within the domestic Chinese market may be as much to blame for Goldwind’s profits plunging, with Chinese manufacturers reportedly bidding each other below the break-even point.

Goldwind has not yet responded to a request for comment on its quarterly results.

All that glisters... Goldwind profits plummet despite China's green boom

Goldwind drops Xinjiang from name as Chinese wind giant sets global sights

Chinese wind giant 'plans 22MW turbine launch'