China Steel Corp (CSC, 中鋼) yesterday launched an alliance of domestic suppliers to raise the local content of Taiwan’s offshore wind farm projects.
The nation’s largest steel producer said that Wind-Team, a collaborative initiative that includes government agencies, has enlisted 24 tier-1 and 40 tier-2 suppliers to build offshore wind farms.
CSC, which has been approved to develop the No. 29 offshore wind energy concession zone, intends to use the site as a proving ground for products made by the team, chairman Wong Chao-tung (翁朝棟) told a news conference in Taipei.
Planned wind energy capacity at the zone would be completed and integrated with the national electricity grid by 2024, Wong said, adding that the firm would meet the 19 objectives outlined by the government’s local content policies.
Apart from acting as a matchmaker for procurement deals, CSC has also established a subsidiary with NT$6.8 billion (US$221.715 million) in capital to provide 14 local suppliers with undersea infrastructure components, CSC said.
The subsidiary’s production plant is expected to be completed next year and would supply components to a number of offshore wind farms scheduled to go online in 2021, it added.
CSC reported that pretax profit in the first eight months of this year rose 61 percent annually to NT$20.19 billion, while sales rose 16 percent annually to NT$262.5 billion.
Pretax earnings per share were NT$1.28, their highest in six years, the company said.
CSC is expected to raise its domestic steel prices this quarter by 1.4 percent, or NT$326 per tonne.
In related news, Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy (SGRE) yesterday awarded contracts to two local companies to supply offshore wind turbine components.
Materials manufacturer and wind farm developer Swancor Holding Co Ltd (上緯) won the contract to supply resin to SGRE to build phase-2 turbine blades for the Formosa 1 (海洋風電) offshore wind farm off Miaoli County’s Jhunan Township (竹南).
The blades are due to be installed next year on the 20 SWT-6.0-154 Direct Drive wind turbines.
A partnership between Chin Fong Machine Industrial Co Ltd (金豐機器工業) and South Korea’s CS Wind won the contract to supply wind farm towers to SGRE.
CS Wind, a global supplier of wind turbine towers for offshore and onshore projects, is to supply towers for the Formosa 1 wind farm, and plans to utilize Chin Fong’s advanced metal forming technologies to meet the local content requirements of the contract, SGRE said.
Through partnerships, local companies can benefit from accelerated growth through investments and technology transfers to meet the government’s goal to tap into offshore wind energy, SGRE said.
Taiwan is going to need at least 200 wind towers by 2021, it said.
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