The increase in scale has not effectively offset the decline in profits caused by falling motor prices, falling electricity sales prices, and rising costs. Even if the total installed capacity exceeds 100 million dry watts, in 2023, Goldwind Technology, the world's leading manufacturer of wind power machines, will not escape the dilemma of increasing revenue and not increasing profits.
On March 29, Goldwind Technology released its 2023 annual report, stating that during the reporting period, the company achieved operating income of 50.457 billion yuan, an increase of 8.66% over the previous year; net profit to mother was 1,331 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 44.16%.
Photo source: Visual China
According to its financial report, Goldwind Technology's main business is fan manufacturing (fan and parts sales), wind power services, and wind farm investment and development, accounting for 65.28%, 21.63%, and 10.39% of its total revenue, respectively.
Among them, fan manufacturing is still Goldwind Technology's largest revenue source, with revenue reaching 39.237 billion yuan, up 1.03% year on year, gross profit margin 6.41%, up 0.18 percentage points year on year.
Since 2022, the domestic wind power market has maintained a competitive trend, and the tender price of fan products has continued to drop. Affected by this, sales order prices for fan products have also continued to drop.
According to public information, starting in early 2023, the price of fans gradually declined, and the average price of onshore wind turbines dropped from 1,700 to 1,800 yuan/kW at the beginning of the year to around 1,500 yuan/kilowatt (excluding towers). At its lowest point, the price of fans for very few wind power projects was quoted at 1,400 yuan/kilowatt including the tower, setting a record low in the industry's history.
In order to cope with competition, various wind power machine manufacturers are reducing costs and increasing competitiveness through large-scale equipment, etc.
Take Goldwind Technology as an example. During the reporting period, sales capacity of units below 4MW decreased by 91.93%; 4MW (inclusive) -6MW units were the main models, accounting for more than 50%; and sales capacity of 6MW and above increased 29.36% year on year.
Jinfeng Technology's fan manufacturing scale continues to expand. During the reporting period, the total number of external orders in hand was 29783.72 MW, of which the overseas order volume was 4677.47 MW.
In addition, Goldwind Technology also has 617.40 MW of internal orders, with a total of 30401.12 MW of on-hand orders, an increase of 12.13% over the previous year.
On the wind farm investment and development side, during the reporting period, Goldwind Technology achieved a trading scale of over 740 MW of power plant products, and revenue of power plant products of nearly 4.5 billion yuan. The wind power project achieved power generation revenue of 6.431 billion yuan, and the investment income from the transfer of shares in the wind farm project was 1,724 billion yuan, an increase of 54.07% over the same period last year.
In 2023, Goldwind Technology added 1.79 GW (1.74 GW in '22) to the grid and transferred 822 MW (685 MW in '22), for a total of 7.29 GW. The equity capacity under construction was 2.3 GW, a year-on-year decrease of 11%. The approved project plan was to install 6.29 GW, an increase of 60% over the previous year.
The wind farm business is known as the “chicken that lays the golden egg” of the wind energy industry. The operating efficiency of wind farms is inseparable from factors such as project investment, power generation, electricity prices, and operation and maintenance management. Currently, in a situation where the wind power market is mature and competitive, there is not much difference in project investment and management costs, and power generation capacity, electricity prices, etc. have become important factors affecting the efficiency of wind farms.
It is worth noting that due to the continued decline in electricity sales prices in the industry, Goldwind Technology's average electricity sales price in 2023 was 0.45 yuan/100 million kilowatt-hours, down 10% from the same period last year.
While sales prices declined, operating costs also surged 140.53% compared to the same period in 2022, causing the gross profit of the wind farm investment and development business, which increased revenue by nearly 57.96%, to fall by 18.09%.
Another main business is wind power services. Revenue during the reporting period was 5.241 billion yuan, down 7.18% year on year, and gross profit decreased by 3.97%. Among them, post-service revenue was 3027.332 million yuan, an increase of 22.91% over the previous year.
Guojin Securities released a research report saying that Goldwind Technology's share of large fans has increased, and on-hand orders continue to grow. Based on ongoing orders and the scale of projects under construction as disclosed in Goldwind Technology's annual report, the 2024 net profit forecast was adjusted to $2,558 billion (-25%).