Chinese turbine companies to buy steel from US companies

Sunday, 08 Aug 2010
Bloomberg reported that Chinese makers of turbines for a Texas wind farm has agreed to buy steel from US producers after lawmakers objected to foreign production of the equipment.

The United Steelworkers union announced that a Power Energy Generation Systems Ltd based in Shenyang, China and Shenyang Power Group anticipated buying about 50,000 tonnes of steel to be produced in American steel mills. The companies will buy parts from American suppliers and invest in a plant in Nevada.

Mr Leo Gerard president of union said “This is a new model. They will work with us to develop and grow the domestic wind energy supply chain. But I don’t have any illusions that this will be easy.”

Mr Gerard said “A wind turbine contains about 8,000 parts and many of those may not be made in the US, so the Chinese companies agreed to turn to American companies where practical. As a result of the agreement, the project should qualify for stimulus funding and the products, if made domestically, wouldn’t face antidumping complaints.”

Democratic Senators Mr Charles Schumer of New York and Mr Sherrod Brown of Ohio had criticized the Texas wind farm saying the federal aid it was seeking would be subsidizing jobs in China because much of the turbine manufacturing would take place there. Lawmakers had pushed for “Buy American” rules to limit government funding for foreign suppliers.

Mr Brown said in a statement “We can’t replace our dependence on foreign oil with a dependence on Chinese made wind turbines. This agreement is an important step forward.”

Mr Cappy McGarr managing partner of US Renewable Energy Group said in the steelworkers’ statement that “This deal will result in hundreds of American jobs and help create a clean energy future for the US.”

(Sourced from Bloomberg)