The leading enterprises of submarine cables and the big names in the industry gathered in Hangzhou to discuss the general trend of localization of the submarine cable material industry.
On December 20, an important meeting on the domestic substitution of key materials for submarine cables was held in Hangzhou. Participating companies or guests include academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, State Grid Electric Power Research Institute, Shanghai Cable Research Institute, East China Survey and Design Institute, State Power Investment Certification Center, State Power Investment China Power Energy Complete, as well as Wanma Co., Ltd., Zhongtian Technology, Hengtong Optoelectronics, Dongfang Cable, Shanghai Electric, etc.
For this meeting, Academician Chen Weijiang of the Chinese Academy of Sciences gave affirmative support, and introduced the R&D and production process and achievements of Wanma Polymer and other domestic companies in domestic insulating materials and shielding materials. Mr. Mao Qingchuan, chief expert of Shanghai Electric Cable Research Institute, called on the designers and builders of wind farms to give priority to domestic materials for submarine cables of 110kV and below, and pilot high-quality demonstration projects.
The meeting pointed out that on the basis of the increasingly mature domestic technology, materials and products comparable to overseas products, as well as the domestic controllable and stuck neck technology to be solved urgently, the localization of ultra-high voltage insulating materials has become a vital part of the national production process of ultra-high voltage cables and ultra-high voltage submarine cables.
There is a stuck neck situation on the trillion-dollar track. The data shows that in 2022, the market size of China's wire and cable industry will reach 117 trillion yuan, and the market size is expected to reach 1 in 20232 trillion yuan. In the field of cable materials, medium and low-voltage materials have basically been replaced by localization, but in the field of high-voltage cable insulation material manufacturing, it has long relied on imports, especially in the field of submarine cable insulation materials.
According to industry insiders, at present, most of China's submarine cables above 35kV (220kv, 110kv) use foreign submarine cable materialsAbout 90% of the 220kV and above ultra-high voltage insulating material products are monopolized by Nordic Chemical and Dow Chemical. The monopoly of high-voltage cable materials by overseas enterprises not only makes domestic cable manufacturers bear high costs, but more importantly, it is imperative to promote the localization of submarine cable materials in the face of the safety and stability of the first chain.
From the perspective of industrial demand, the domestic demand for submarine cable materials in 2022 will be about 3-40,000 tons, and with the promotion of the offshore wind power deep-sea strategy, the demand for high-voltage insulation materials for submarine cables is expected to be close to the similar demand for high-voltage materials for terrestrial cables in 2025.
In fact, China has already started the technical research of high-voltage cable materials. According to the data, since 2011, domestic scientific research institutes, manufacturing enterprises, testing and testing units have jointly carried out technical research, established a high-voltage cable science and technology research team of the State Grid Corporation, and established a joint venture with Zhejiang Wanma and other companies, mastered the core technology of high-voltage AC cable insulation materials of 220kv and below, and developed domestic high-voltage cable cross-linked polyethylene insulation materials, which has filled the technical gap in this field in China.
In 2022, Wanma's 220kV ultra-high voltage cable insulation material will be put into operation in the demonstration project of China Southern Power Grid Corporation and listed in batches. This shows that Wanma Co., Ltd. has fully cut into the new track of the Haifeng submarine cable industry, and there is no substantial obstacle. As the only high-voltage insulating material enterprise in China that can batch **220kv and above, it will be an inevitable trend to promote the localization of submarine cable insulating materials.
Experts at the meeting said that the domestic cable material leader represented by Wanma polymer has basically realized the domestic substitution of ultra-high voltage insulation materials for terrestrial cables through 16 years of technology research and development and production. The existing high-voltage production line production capacity of Wanma Polymer has reached 40,000 tons per year and has further clear expansion plans, the production of high-voltage insulating materials has exceeded 50,000 tons, the corresponding high-voltage cables have exceeded 20,000 kilometers, and the earliest high-voltage cables have been in safe operation for nearly 12 years. However, due to factors such as the long verification cycle of domestic materials, the large investment in the project, and the prudence of the owner, the ultra-high voltage materials of domestic submarine cables have not yet been rolled out on a large scale.
According to industry insiders, from the technical point of view of submarine cable ultra-high pressure materials, domestic leading material enterprises have technical reserves and production capacity, and the parameters have reached the performance of foreign advanced productsFrom the perspective of the market side, domestic 35kV and 66kV submarine cable materials have more than 2 years of practical application history, sold to some major domestic submarine cable companies, and applied to many offshore wind power projects at home and abroad, and have achieved reliable operation data and good market feedback. At present, a series of demonstration projects have been verified in China for submarine cable insulation products of 220kV and above, and it is believed that in the foreseeable future, domestic materials will occupy the majority.
At the meeting, all parties reached a consensus based on the industry situation and jointly put forward the meeting proposal: in the future, the domestic application of 35kV and 66kV submarine cable materials will be further encouraged and liberalized, and the applicability of domestic submarine cable material standards and the localization exploration of submarine cable high-voltage and ultra-high-voltage products will be comprehensively promoted, so as to promote the overall cost reduction and efficiency increase of the industry, and realize domestic independent controllability and industrial development.