Hidden Champions: Zhongli Group turns crisis into opportunity
Zhongli Group, a hi-tech enterprise in China’s eastern Jiangsu Province, is seeking acquisitions and to innovate to overcome ups and downs in the solar power industry.
Due to overcapacity in the industry, the Chinese government announced a cut in solar subsidies in June, causing concern for many firms in the industry.
But Zhongli’s chairman Wang Baixing said he prepared for policy changes a few years ago and has developed his own solutions.
Wang Baixing, chairman of the Zhongli Group, speaks with CGTN. /CGTN Photo
The company started adopting solar power technology in agriculture in 2015 and established solar farms to help impoverished villages the following year.
Wang said they had converted salt marshes into solar farms as land is so scarce and a demo in the east China city of Changshu was really successful.
Besides, Zhongli is rolling out a combination of solar electricity and agriculture to Belt and Road countries. Wang said they are building plants and cooperating with countries including Argentina, Thailand and Japan.
A 300megawatt project will start producing power in Argentina and Zhongli has built a factory in Thailand with 800 megawatts capacity, which really was a first for the country, according to Wang.
Aside from the Belt and Road projects, Zhongli also collaborates with Huawei and Wang said there are plans to go global “just like Huawei, and where they go abroad, we follow and supply the cables, wiring.”
Going global seems to have become a must for ambitious companies. Hermann Simon, the father of the “Hidden Champions” concept, said that in doing so, Chinese companies may need help from the next generation, who are more familiar with different languages and cultures.
Zhongli Group made about 39 billion yuan in sales (about 5.8 billion US dollars) in 2017, while the profit reached 1.28 billion yuan (190 million US dollars). The company is now looking for acquisitions to enter into the new energy sector.
“We’re buying BAK battery to diversify into new energy vehicles. This is a big deal, at 10 billion yuan (1.5 billion US dollars),” said Wang.
Even though the battery market has overcapacity, Wang believes the top five players with large scale and sophisticated technology are still inundated with demand.
(CGTN’s Peng Xiaoyun contributed to the story)
Source: news.cgtn
