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Opportunities in the Chinese market
The major opportunity that exists is the maturing of the nuclear market. The purpose of DPS is to act as a catalyst for this change, integrating and developing legislation, supplier networking, business opportunities, off shoring and overseas investment.
The nuclear power market in China is politically driven; the energy pricing is retained by the NDRC despite the establishment of the National Energy Bureau. The NDRC is planning to liberalize smoothly the electricity market in China.
As per the building of the power plant units, the China Atomic Energy Authority implements the strategy of the NDRC and plans the construction of the plants. Four foreign entities tender designs for each power plant project within China: EPR (France), AP1000 (USA), VVER (Russia), CANDU (Canada). China has strong interest in foreign-made third and fourth generation of power plants, the long term objective is to establish a Chinese-made power plant as their de facto design AP1000.
The main Institutes of design and research have three major challenges;
- Compile a power plant design.
- Secure the supply of imported components to fill gaps left from domestic production.
- Transfer the 'know-how' into overseas projects, such as in Pakistan.
- China's electricity output from nuclear power only represents 1.7% therefore it is still a minor market for most of the suppliers.
- Intellectual property is not as protected as in Western countries, therefore many SMEs which provide most of the components for the nuclear island are reluctant to completely transfer their technology to access the Chinese market.
- The global nuclear power market is booming and some critical components cannot be delivered to China due to global product shortages e.g. stainless steel piping.
The qualification and standardization of products and the management process is still under developed in China.
This fragmented market offers a major opportunity to support structure and establish a long term relationship with power plants R & D Institutes, Nuclear Operators, Administrative bodies, and foreign suppliers:
The design and research institutes need better communication with foreign entities, and welcome a third part in order to support their communicate.The foreign laboratories and SMEs are looking to enter in the market and sell patents, components and ultimately license their technology but the communication with Chinese counterparts is still weak and irregular.The local suppliers seek to produce components for the international market (up to 300 nuclear power plants until 2030), therefore will need to qualify more components. E.g., Exelon which express in its corporate website the interest to source for more suppliers: "Our suppliers must accommodate Exelon’s diverse business needs to support our Generation, Delivery and Business Services organizations. Suppliers must provide innovative technical solutions that leverage our $2 billion spend in materials and services. As we seek to enhance our relationship with our premier suppliers, we also look for opportunities to build partnerships with new suppliers who are environmentally responsible, with a keen focus on safety, diversity and superior quality".