Dialogue with Mingyang Group Chairman Zhang Chuanwei: Visiting 143 countries in a year, new overseas expansion relies on localization | Boao Asia Forum

Ask AI · Can a localization strategy break through trade barriers for new energy exports?

Interface News reporter | Ma Yueran Jiang Xirang

“Currently, it is a window period. The global energy crisis and the market demand driven by energy security have provided us with a historic opportunity.”

On March 24, during the 2026 Boao Forum for Asia annual conference, Zhang Chuanwei, founder and chairman of Mingyang Group, a leading wind turbine manufacturer, stated in an interview with Interface News.

After completing his trip in Hainan, Zhang Chuanwei will once again head to Ethiopia to discuss the implementation of a series of local projects, and he also plans to establish an industrial cluster there. Next month, Zhang Chuanwei has scheduled a trip to Europe.

Zhang Chuanwei told Interface News that last year, he traveled 320,000 kilometers worldwide and made 143 international trips. Mingyang’s overseas market expansion has achieved significant results, and it has established a market-oriented global business layout.

Europe is a frequently mentioned term by Zhang Chuanwei in this interview. According to him, during the China Development High-Level Forum 2026 held a few days ago, he met with leaders of several European Fortune 500 companies, hoping to bring China’s advanced deep-sea wind power technology and advantages to Europe.

Zhang Chuanwei believes that energy has become a decisive factor in the construction speed, efficiency, and cost of data centers. In Europe, the US, and other regions, the model of wind/solar combined with energy storage, along with gas turbines, can solve the energy needs of data centers. Therefore, future market demand for China’s new energy technology equipment and solutions will be very strong.

He pointed out that even though the US and Europe implemented measures such as tariffs, anti-dumping investigations, and countervailing duties over the past two years, China’s exports of solar, wind, and energy storage equipment still grew exponentially—an unstoppable market force.

“Give me three years, and I can reduce the cost of offshore wind power by 40%, lowering electricity prices to 1 yuan per kWh or even less,” Zhang Chuanwei said. He once told senior officials of the UK government this.

However, at the same time, geopolitical tensions and trade barriers are exerting dual pressure on Chinese companies expanding abroad.

​​​​​Zhang Chuanwei believes that the impact of trade barriers on the new energy industry manifests at two levels: government and market. The current international energy landscape has undergone major changes. With energy prices remaining high, new energy is no longer just a strategic issue of energy transition and emission reduction; more importantly, it concerns energy security and demand assurance.

“Now is an era where global resources, capacity, markets, and supply chains are being built together,” Zhang Chuanwei said. The core competitiveness of enterprises lies in resource integration and industrial ecosystem development.

“The biggest challenge for the industry is implementing a new overseas expansion strategy,” Zhang Chuanwei stated. In the past, the industry’s model was: products manufactured in China, relying on China’s supply chain, labor, and manufacturing capacity, then exported globally. Industry players mainly attracted orders through exhibitions, the Canton Fair, and events, achieving exports and addressing tariff issues.

Today, the landscape has changed. Industries such as solar power must develop locally overseas, driven by market orientation and localization. For example, establishing factories in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Europe, Latin America, and Africa.

Therefore, Chinese companies can no longer simply pursue a “going overseas” strategy but must develop a truly global strategy. Zhang Chuanwei believes that the pace of a company’s overseas expansion now depends on how quickly it can localize.

“Who can quickly establish industrial presence and become an effective provider of products, technologies, and solutions in the market will be the winner. This determines their position and overall layout in the international market,” Zhang Chuanwei judged. “Even the importance of brands is declining.”

He proposed that China’s overseas energy expansion should learn from the experience of the home appliance era in the last century—shifting from simply importing products to introducing production lines, gradually replacing imports with domestic production. Today, China’s development model is being replicated by countries in Southeast Asia, Latin America, and even Africa, which also need to build localized production lines.

Zhang Chuanwei said that growth driven by local market demand is both a common challenge for developing countries and an explicit national policy in many nations. In advancing industrialization, infrastructure, energy upgrades, and urbanization, countries need to build solid local industrial support systems to achieve sustainable development.

In his view, Southeast Asia’s current incremental new energy market is the most practical. For example, Vietnam continues to adjust its wind and solar power plans; after a few years of stagnation, the Philippines has also rapidly launched related projects.

Beyond Southeast Asia, especially in the Middle East—such as Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and others—gigawatt-scale wind farms are being promoted. He also mentioned that North Africa, South Africa, and Central Asian countries like Kazakhstan, as well as Eastern European nations like Romania and Serbia, are all vigorously developing new energy.

“This market is huge. And the current situation in the Middle East is also promoting the development of new energy,” Zhang Chuanwei said.

In his view, Mingyang Smart is not yet a fully successful overseas enterprise; it is still in the growth stage, seeking more efficient localization within its global strategy.

Interface News learned that to further expand its international presence, Mingyang has established four major centers worldwide: Middle East and Africa, Asia-Pacific, Europe, and the Americas.

China is the world’s largest wind power equipment manufacturing base, producing wind turbines that account for over two-thirds of the global market. The output of castings, forgings, and key components accounts for more than 70% of the global market.

In 2025, seven Chinese wind turbine OEMs exported turbines to 28 countries. However, this pace of overseas expansion lags far behind that of solar PV, lithium batteries, and energy storage products.

Compared to these, wind power equipment is large-scale and specialized. Zhang Chuanwei explained: for example, in Africa, wind power projects face difficulties in lifting and transporting equipment, and construction equipment often cannot keep up; sometimes, relevant technical standards are absent, leading to long project cycles and high costs.

Additionally, wind power requires suitable wind resources, which impose many requirements on supporting infrastructure, transmission, construction, and subsequent operation and maintenance services. Zhang Chuanwei emphasized that future wind industry development must leverage artificial intelligence, robotics, drones, and unmanned ships to enable technological empowerment.