There have been continuing significant shifts in the supply side of the industry, particularly in terms of market share. Most striking of these has been the rise of Chinese manufacturers. There are now three Chinese companies in the global top 10 – Sinovel, Goldwind and Dongfang. The two market leaders continue to be Vestas and GE Wind, with 12.5% and 12.4% of the global market respectively – 24.9% between them. Despite these companies both having grown their output significantly, the rapid rise of Chinese manufacturers has led to a significantly lower market share for them. In 2008, Vestas and GE Wind shared 38.4% of the market between them.
The three Chinese manufacturers listed have all shown spectacular growth, but all are almost entirely dependent on the booming domestic market in China. Sinovel supplied 3510 MW in 2010 raising its share of the global market from 5.0% to 9.2% and making it the third largest wind turbine manufacturer in the world . It is also worth noting this more than doubled its entire previous supply of turbines; it also exported 10 of its 1.5 MW turbines to India – and several of the other Chinese manufacturers also recorded small export orders as well.
The two other Chinese companies in the top 10 experienced very rapid growth too, with Goldwind installing 2727 MW in 2009, a 140% increase on 2008 that saw its market share rise to 7.2%. Dongfang entered the top 10 with installations of 2475 MW, or 6.5% of the global market, also seeing output more than doubling.
Top suppliers
