Chen Jianyi: China's inverter market enters a period of rapid growth

China's inverter market is rapidly expanding. According to a China's domestic authoritative statistics, in the past few years, China's inverter market has maintained an annual growth rate of 25% to 35% , and its growth rate ranks first in the electrical industry. . Far more than China's GDP growth levels in recent years; it is expected that this growth rate will remain at an average of 25% or more in the next 10 years at least. In an interview with the media, CEO of Wilco China, Chen Jianyi, revealed that at present , the growth rate of the installed capacity ( power ) of the upconverter in the Chinese market is actually around 20% . According to this growth rate, China's inverter market must at least be It will take 15 years to mature and gradually become saturated.

Chen Jianyi was once the founder of one of the largest domestic private soft starter manufacturing companies. After joining Wilkey, he became the head of the Wilco China region. Chen Jianyi said that China is vigorously developing a low-carbon economy and circular economy, and actively promote energy conservation and emission reduction. Inverters, as the core energy-saving equipment for electric power transmission systems, have broad space for development. At present, there are at least 360 million kilowatts of electric motors with variable load and potential for energy saving in China. The annual installed capacity of new electric motors is about 40 million kilowatts. Currently, it requires about 35 billion yuan of market capacity each year.

With the refinement of the market and the diversification of user needs, the production technology of domestic frequency converters has been continuously upgraded, product functions have also improved, and product quality has passed and gained the trust and universal use of users. The personage inside course of study introduces, the integration degree and systemization of the domestic frequency converter are getting higher and higher, and some special-purpose frequency converter products have already appeared, In addition, the application field of the frequency converter is expanding constantly too. Chen Jianyi believes that benefiting from energy-saving emission reduction and green new policies, the potential of the inverter industry is very important as an important equipment for energy conservation. It is widely used in: electricity, water conservancy, chemical industry, metallurgy, machinery, building materials, engineering and construction machinery, environmental protection, agriculture and forestry Almost all motor mechanical transmission loads in the industries of processing, manufacturing, mining, military, textile, coal, paper, cigarettes, and water supply have all been popularized with frequency converters. Nowadays, fans and pump loads with outstanding energy-saving effect and large capacity are also gaining popularity.

From Chen's expression, he can see that he is confident in his own frequency converter technology and is confident in the Chinese inverter market. Speaking of Welke's performance, Chen said: " In the second year of entering the Chinese market - 2009 , Wilke's sales exceeded 80 million yuan. In 2010 , Wilke's performance is expected to exceed 150 million yuan. It will rank first among its peers in Shanghai, and it will squeeze into the forefront of the nation as soon as possible. "

    China's inverter technology is expected to occupy the commanding heights

    The frequency converter is a high-tech product with high added value and high return. Like the IT industry, the industry covers all industries related to inverter technology, that is, the production of power electronic devices, the production of drive protection integrated circuits, electrical drive and system control technologies, and industrial applications. Chen Jianyi said that the power electronics technology, motor control methods, and automation control level determine the development level of the inverter.

    According to industry experts, the development of information technology has also led to the development of frequency conversion technology. DSP computing technology has been introduced into frequency converters to enable complex real-time calculations. With the means of realization, the complete set of systems has become easy and comfortable. The frequency conversion speed regulation is considered to be the most ideal speed regulation solution due to its high speed control precision, low start-up energy consumption, advanced technology, rich functions, easy operation, strong versatility, and easy to form closed-loop control. It represents the development of electric drives. direction. Since Wilkey has a leading technological advantage in the field of variable frequency speed control, after its entry into the Chinese market, Wilco's own technical characteristics have become its biggest weapon to quickly open the market and establish a brand.

In recent years, the rapid development and successful application of AC speed control have broken the dominance of DC dragging in the field of speed control in the past, and AC speed adjustment drag has entered the era of AC frequency conversion. “ China has now mastered the Direct Speed ​​Control Theory (DSC) , which also marks China’s leading global in motor control technology. ” Chen Jianyi is very optimistic about the development of China's inverter technology.

    The high-voltage and high-power inverters have been faced with great technical difficulties in electromagnetic compatibility, electromagnetic radiation, and series technology, and have become the hot spots for competition among major electric companies in the world. At present, many inverter manufacturers in China have invested a large amount of manpower and material resources in the field of high-voltage inverters, and strive to occupy the commanding heights in inverter technology. However, the core of the inverter, IGBT devices rely on imports for a long time, has become a bottleneck restricting the development of domestic inverters. After Wilco entered China, this situation will be changed. Not only that, Chen Jianyi also hopes that the parts of Welch will also be localized. “The main reason is not to consider procurement advantages, but some of China’s domestic components have already been processed. To the international level, some even exceed foreign products. The advantage of Wilkey is only the core technology, and the goal of product refinement and fine-graining can be achieved in China. "

In order to meet the challenges from different application areas, inverter products are constantly being upgraded, with improved functions and diversified varieties. The industry believes that, in general, the inverter in the new era has the following features: First, all-digital, full-featured, able to compensate for load changes, especially distributed high-end inverters with communication, networking capabilities and integrated PLC ; It is a simple or industry-specific inverter and electromechanical integration and miniaturization. Third, it is networked and systematized. It reduces the construction cost through network connection. Through the fieldbus module, different types of inverters can use the same programming language and communication protocol. Configure it. Chen Jianyi also believes that with the advent of new high-voltage power electronic devices, high-voltage and medium-voltage inverters will have considerable development. In the future, new types of inverters such as matrix inverters and green inverters will come out one after another.

China's foreign inverter companies

Since the 21st century, China's inverter industry is highly fragmented. Many foreign brands have built factories in China and implemented localized operations. Chinese local brands have constantly separated the establishment of new companies. These enterprises are mainly concentrated in coastal areas such as Shanghai, Guangdong, Zhejiang and Tianjin. Chen Jianyi believes that the influx of foreign-funded enterprises will greatly accelerate the upgrading of China's frequency conversion technology.

Chen Jianyi introduced that currently there are more than 300 inverter manufacturers on the domestic market, and the major brands are about 20 to 30 . In China's low-voltage inverter market, foreign brands still dominate. The history of the establishment of most domestic companies in China is not long and the time for the products to enter the market is relatively short. It is difficult to compete with internationally renowned brands in terms of product maturity and brand awareness.

The domestic inverter market started with the entry of foreign brands, and the foreign brands were predominant. The strength of China's inverter supporting industry is relatively weak, and there is a certain gap between domestic brands and foreign brands in terms of technology, manufacturing, industrial design, and the strength of funds.

    It is understood that major foreign brands such as ABB , Siemens, Fuji Electric, Mitsubishi Electric, Schneider, Emerson, and Welchall account for most of China's medium and low-voltage inverter market. At the same time, most foreign brands have set up factories in China. Take Wilkey as an example. Although entering the Chinese market was relatively late, it set up an office in Hong Kong as early as 1997 to specifically investigate and study the Chinese market; 2006 Weikai moved its China office to Shanghai; in 2007 , it started building a factory in Shanghai.

Chen Jianyi said that China's inverter market is still dominated by prices, which may lead to many international brands in the country to promote the inverter model and international differences, but also for the local drive brand development provides a certain opportunity. Although domestic brands do not have the strength to compete with international brands such as Siemens, ABB , and Wilhelm, they have shown certain competitive advantages in some product varieties and market segments, and their market share has gradually expanded.

After entering the Chinese market, Wilkey paid great attention to the Chinese-owned company in China and boldly used Chinese high-quality components. " Using China's domestic resources will fully demonstrate our strengths, and through complementary cooperation to maximize our profits, China is the key to Victor's victory. " Chen Jianyi said that local companies have a unique advantage in channel and production through the acquisition of the Mainland. Expanding the market by enterprises will be one of the options for foreign investment expansion. Wilke will not rule out the possibility of adopting this approach in future development.

    Infinite market prospects

    With the rapid development of frequency conversion technology and the expansion of product functions, frequency converters have achieved unprecedented development and application in modern industries such as cement, elevators, printing, and power, as well as medicine, communications, transportation, transportation, electric power, electronics, and environmental protection. All walks of life in the national economy are inseparable from the inverter. "The continuous rapid development of China is a rare opportunity for the global inverter industry. " Chen Jianyi is very optimistic about the Chinese market.

However, some experts pointed out that, as a whole, the competition in China's inverter industry will become increasingly fierce. Because the market is highly tempting, the potential capacity is very impressive, and it constantly attracts new players in the industry. The existing market has formed a certain scale and the development is becoming more and more mature. Future resource plunder and market warfare will be inevitable. With continuous technological advancements, the stability of product quality has been gradually improved, and with the advantages of services and prices, the competitiveness of domestic manufacturers will become stronger. In foreign brands, such as Wilco, the first to achieve Chinese-savvy is not much at present. Some foreign-funded enterprises do not believe the quality of parts and components produced by Chinese companies. They prefer to spend high prices to build luxury parts factories in China, which makes their product costs. Stay high and reduce competitive advantage. Some experts predict that the situation of high-end products being monopolized by foreign manufacturers will change in the coming years.

Chen Jianyi believes that the potential demand of the China's inverter market in the next 10 years will total 3,000 to 400 billion yuan, of which the atmospheric inverter will account for about 60% of the market, and the demand for medium and high-voltage inverters will be relatively small.

Industry sources pointed out that from the demand side, inverters are gradually becoming more diversified, and the emergence of general-purpose and special-purpose products is to meet the diverse needs of users. In addition, inverter manufacturers also pay more attention to product quality and use safety, and actively seek greater breakthroughs, making the inverter can work well in harsh environments, and ensure the use of safety and the user's normal production. “The inverter has unique characteristics in terms of energy saving, and it is in line with the Chinese government’s green policy. The rapid development of the inverter industry in China will be inevitable. Therefore, Welke must maintain a competitive advantage of quality and price. ” Kay is confident in the future development of China.