Power equipment bright spot among exports

Propelled by surging global electricity demand and accelerated infrastructure development, China's power equipment exports will maintain robust growth throughout 2025, said generator manufacturers on Wednesday.

They said rising opportunities stem from foreign tech companies' soaring power needs to develop artificial intelligence solutions, growing demand in many emerging markets for natural gas-powered generators and their efforts to accelerate the pace of industrialization.

Leroy Somer Electro-Technique (Fuzhou) Co, a Fuzhou, Fujian province-based generator manufacturer, put a new workshop into operation last month. The company has been rushing to expand production capacity to meet the surge in overseas orders this year.

"Our orders are already scheduled through October. With the new workshop, our capacity will increase by 50 percent," said Huang Jiyun, the company's chief administrator.

The high-voltage diesel generators the company produces are widely used across industries such as shipping, mining and data centers. In the past, the construction of AI data centers was concentrated in China and the United States.

However, several countries in Europe and Southeast Asia have entered the AI sector this year, becoming the fastest-growing markets for the company's generator exports — in particular after Chinese startup DeepSeek launched an open-source ecosystem that enables global developers to collaborate — accelerating technological iterations and lowering innovation barriers, said Huang.

East China's Fujian province exported 2.04 billion yuan ($279.52 million) of power generation equipment in the first quarter, up 25.7 percent year-on-year, said Fuzhou Customs.

In the meantime, Fujian's exports in this category to economies participating in the Belt and Road Initiative reached 1.68 billion yuan, marking a 28.3 percent increase on a yearly basis.

Tide Power Technology Co, another Fuzhou-based generator supplier, said its products were originally exclusively diesel generator sets. Three years ago, the company began manufacturing natural gas generators, and now, this segment accounts for nearly 30 percent of its business, with the market continuing to expand in the Middle East.

"We have added Africa to our market footprint this year as many African countries involved in the BRI have abundant natural gas reserves," said Chen Yifeng, managing director of Tide Power, adding the company plans to explore new market opportunities in South America later this year.

Aeolon Technology Co, a Shanghai-based wind power equipment manufacturer, shipped 36 million yuan worth of large wind turbine blades to Europe from a port in Nantong, Jiangsu province, last week, said Nantong Customs, a branch of Nanjing Customs.

"Our output is estimated to have more than doubled year-on-year in the first quarter, with the total production value expected to exceed 800 million yuan," said Wang Dongliang, the company's vice-president.