All charged up for high-growth era


European countries, he said, have been stepping up their energy supply capacity amid the gas shortage last year and the Russia-Ukraine conflict this year. They have resorted to fossil fuels and nuclear energy, besides stepping up new energy development. China, as a major solar and wind power equipment manufacturer and exporter, will play a key role in meeting the demand.
For individual companies, this could translate to big profits. For instance, Longi achieved operating revenue of 87 billion yuan ($12.46 billion) in the first three quarters of this year, up 55 percent year-on-year, while its net profit rose 45 percent to almost 11 billion yuan.
In addition to growing its European business, the company is expanding in South America, central and eastern regions of Africa as well as the Asia-Pacific.
Against the backdrop of carbon peak and carbon neutrality goals, Chinese enterprises are more than ever competing globally, relying on their increasing innovation in green technologies, which, in turn, have been providing momentum to Chinese manufacturing to go global. All this has helped enhance the overall quality of China's foreign trade as well, said Luo.
Chinese companies have long been dominating solar manufacturing, accounting for nearly all global production in some steps of the supply chain. Nearly 40 percent of its solar exports went to Europe in 2021, according to BloombergNEF.
The European market sees more than 90 percent of its solar component supplies coming from China. This means a consistent surge in exports of Chinese solar components to Europe, despite climbing raw material costs, it said.
While surging energy prices are driving large-scale utility installation, Europe needs to rely on China in the short to medium term due to its relatively small scale of manufacturing capacity, said Jiang Yali, a solar analyst at BloombergNEF.
Data from Alibaba.com, the cross-border e-commerce giant, showed the renewable energy category, including the lithium battery, energy storage battery and wind turbine segments, has been one of the fastest-growing sectors this year, with an average 19 percent month-on-month growth in daily global demand between January and April.
As going green and reducing carbon footprints continue to gain popularity, purchases of Chinese goods by European countries, including big markets like Germany and Italy, will see the most obvious growth, Alibaba said.