Wind power industry
In 2019, China's newly added wind power capacity reached the second highest historical level
Data released by Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) recently shows that affected by both the reduction of subsidies and the acceleration of offshore wind power development, in 2019, China's newly installed wind power capacity reached a record second-highest level, an increase of 37% compared with 2018, reaching 28.9 million kilowatts.
In 2019, China's wind power market maintained a high-speed growth trend, with a global share of 48% of newly installed capacity, nearly half of the global market. Among them, onshore wind power increased by 26.2 million kilowatts, with a growth rate of 36%, and offshore wind power increased by 2.7 million kilowatts, with a growth rate as high as 57%.
The concentration of the wind power market is steadily increasing. The top five main equipment manufacturers have an installed capacity of 21.7 million kilowatts, accounting for 76% of the national market. The top three companies have obvious advantages. Goldwind's newly installed capacity is 8.01 million kilowatts, with a market share of 28%, ranking first in the country, and its installed capacity is 48% higher than the second place; Envision Energy's newly installed capacity is 5.42 million kilowatts, accounting for 19% of the national market, ranking second in the country, and the installed capacity increment increased by 47% compared with 2018; Mingyang Smart Energy's newly installed capacity is 4.5 million kilowatts, accounting for 16% of the national market, ranking third in the country, and its offshore wind power has achieved six times growth in newly installed capacity since 2018.
Globally, in 2019, the newly installed capacity of global onshore wind power was 53.2 million kilowatts, and the newly installed capacity of offshore wind power reached a record high of 7.5 million kilowatts. In the onshore wind power sector, the market share is clearly concentrated among large wind turbine manufacturers. Goldwind, ranked second among global onshore wind turbine manufacturers, accounts for 14% of the global market share. Mingyang Smart Energy, United Power, and Dongfang Electric are among the top ten globally; in the offshore wind power sector, Shanghai Electric, Envision Energy, Goldwind, and Mingyang Smart Energy rank third to sixth globally.

China is expected to become the world's largest offshore wind power market
Global cumulative installed capacity of offshore wind power reached 27.2GW in 2019
According to data released by the World Forum on Offshore Wind (WFO), in 2019, a total of 16 new offshore wind farms were built and put into operation globally, with a total newly installed capacity of 5.2GW; mainly distributed in China, the UK, Germany, Denmark, Belgium, and Taiwan. By the end of 2019, there were a total of 146 offshore wind farms in operation globally, with a cumulative installed capacity of 27.2GW, a year-on-year increase of 23.4%. Overall, the global offshore wind power market is operating steadily and maintaining a sustained growth trend.

The UK continues to lead the global offshore wind power market
From a comparison of the installed capacity of offshore wind farms in operation in various countries around the world, the UK still holds the leading position. In 2019, the UK's cumulative installed capacity of offshore wind power reached 9.7GW; followed by Germany, with a cumulative installed capacity of 7.5GW; China is the world's third largest offshore wind power market, with a cumulative installed capacity of 4.9GW.

China is expected to become the world's largest offshore wind power market
By the end of 2019, there were a total of 23 offshore wind power projects under construction globally, with a total of 7GW; among them, China has 13 offshore wind power projects under construction, accounting for 56.5% of the global total. At the same time, from the distribution of installed capacity, the installed capacity of China's offshore wind power projects under construction is as high as 3.7GW, accounting for 52.9% of the global capacity of offshore wind power projects under construction. It can be seen that China's layout in the offshore wind power market is rapidly expanding. At the same time, looking forward to the current global installed capacity and the capacity under construction, China may become the world's largest offshore wind power market after 2020.
In addition, among the 23 offshore wind power projects under construction, the Borssele 3&4 project in the Netherlands takes the lead, with an installed capacity of 732MW; followed by the UK's East Anglia One, Denmark's Kriegers Flak, and CGN's Yangjiang Nanpeng Island, all of which have an installed capacity exceeding 400MW.
Currently, floating offshore wind power projects are attracting attention from various countries. By the end of 2019, there were a total of 10 floating offshore wind power projects globally (excluding demonstration projects), with an installed capacity of 1000.3MW. From the project status, there is 1 floating offshore wind power project in operation, 2 under construction, and 7 in the planning stage; from the national layout, France has the most projects, with 4; followed by South Korea and the UK with 2 each; Portugal and Norway have 1 each.

Steel
Trend of Shanghai Nickel Futures Price
From February 12, 2020 to March 17, 2020, the nickel price generally showed a fluctuating downward trend, with the highest price of 107,050 yuan/ton and the lowest price of 95,790 yuan/ton. It fluctuated around the average price of 101,600 yuan/ton, with a small amplitude. The downward trend was obvious in the mid-to-late February, and it was basically stable in early March.

Statistics of national steel production data in February 2020
Data from the National Bureau of Statistics shows: From January to February 2020, China's average daily output of crude steel was 2.578 million tons, the average daily output of pig iron was 2.206 million tons, and the average daily output of steel was 2.786 million tons.
From January to February 2020, China's pig iron production was 132.34 million tons, a year-on-year increase of 3.1%.
From January to February 2020, China's crude steel production was 154.7 million tons, a year-on-year increase of 3.1%.
From January to February 2020, China's steel production was 167.13 million tons, a year-on-year decrease of 3.4%.
Steel PMI in February shows: Significant decline in market supply and demand, significant short-term impact of the epidemic
The steel PMI in February was 36.6%, down 10.5 percentage points from the previous month. The sub-indexes show that affected by the novel coronavirus pneumonia epidemic, the demand for the steel market has shrunk, steel production has slowed down, raw material prices have tended to decline, steel inventories have increased significantly, and enterprises are not optimistic about the future market. It is expected that with the continuous control of the epidemic, the resumption of work and production of enterprises in various places and the recovery of infrastructure and real estate investment, the steel market will gradually return to normal. Overall, in February, affected by the COVID-19 epidemic, market demand and supply have shrunk significantly, logistics control has hindered enterprise procurement and sales, steel mills and social inventories have increased significantly, and steel prices and raw material prices have also declined due to pessimistic expectations.

Ministry of Industry and Information Technology: Operating conditions of the steel industry in 2019
In 2019, the steel industry continued to deepen the supply-side structural reform, consolidate the achievements of reducing overcapacity, accelerate structural adjustment and transformation and upgrading, promote high-quality development of the entire industry, and the overall operation of the industry was stable.
1. Crude steel production hit a new historical high. In 2019, the national output of pig iron, crude steel, and steel was 809 million tons, 996 million tons, and 1.205 billion tons respectively, with year-on-year increases of 5.3%, 8.3%, and 9.8% respectively. Crude steel production hit a new historical high.
Second, steel imports and exports both declined. In 2019, China's cumulative steel exports totaled 64.293 million tons, a year-on-year decrease of 7.3%; the cumulative export value was US\$53.76 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 11.3%. Cumulative steel imports totaled 12.304 million tons, a year-on-year decrease of 6.5%; the cumulative import value was US\$14.11 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 14.1%.
Third, steel prices fluctuated within a narrow range. The annual average of the China Steel Price Index was 107.98 points, down 6.77 points year-on-year, a decrease of 5.9%.
Fourth, the price of imported iron ore rose sharply. In 2019, China's cumulative iron ore imports totaled 1.07 billion tons, a year-on-year increase of 0.5%, with an import value of US\$101.46 billion, an increase of US\$26.64 billion year-on-year, an increase of 33.6%. The average annual price was US\$94.8 per ton, an increase of 34.3% year-on-year. Compared with last year, while the total import volume remained stable, import prices rose sharply, significantly impacting the profits of downstream steel manufacturers.
Fifth, economic benefits declined significantly. In 2019, member steel enterprises of the China Iron and Steel Association achieved sales revenue of 4.27 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 10.1%; profits reached 188.994 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 30.9%; the cumulative sales profit margin was 4.43%, a year-on-year decrease of 2.63 percentage points.

Composite Materials
The Current Situation, Opportunities, and Challenges of Global Composite Materials Industry Development in 2020
The US Composites World website published a series of research reports, "Composites 2020-Abundant Market Opportunities," summarizing and looking forward to the current situation, opportunities, and challenges of global composite materials industry development in 2020.
The report believes that the main factors affecting the composite materials manufacturing industry in 2020 include robotics and automation technology, high-temperature autoclave curing technology, thermoplastic composite materials technology, Composites 4.0, and additive manufacturing technology.
The report points out that although composite materials have highly customized characteristics, in the next few years, the overall booming trend of materials and processes will undoubtedly also affect the entire composite materials industry.
First, robotics and automation technologies will be widely used, gradually replacing manual labor in the manufacturing process. The main reasons driving this transformation include user expectations for improved product consistency and quality, the objective requirement for further reducing manufacturing costs, and the practical need for higher batch and high-efficiency production.
Second, the composite materials industry will strive to break free from the limitations of autoclave curing technology. Although autoclaves have obvious advantages in curing composite laminates, their acquisition and operation costs are also high. This is also one of the current bottlenecks in production, hindering the improvement of production efficiency and output. Therefore, in various application fields, people have considered more fully and seriously putting non-autoclave (OOA) materials and processes—such as thermoplastic composites, resin infusion, and resin transfer molding (RTM) processes—into production, especially in the manufacturing of large commercial aerospace structural components.
Third, the development of thermoplastic composite materials shows an upward trend. This is mainly due to the following characteristics of this material: it can be processed using OOA, is easier to store and handle (compared to prepreg), and is easy to recycle.
Fourth, the "Composites 4.0" era has arrived. The Industry 4.0 version in the composite materials industry has officially entered the public eye. Its main connotation refers to the fact that the composite materials industry has a complete digital manufacturing process—from design to simulation, to manufacturing simulation, to composite materials manufacturing, to troubleshooting, and finally to tracking the performance status of each component.
Fifth, the large-scale development of additive manufacturing technology in composite materials manufacturing. The initial application of short-cut fiber-reinforced materials in additive manufacturing based on thermoplastic composite materials shows that it is possible to manufacture individual parts, tooling, and mold components using continuous fiber-reinforced materials.

In addition, the industry has also discovered additive manufacturing technology based on thermosetting composite materials, and the emergence of new processes that combine additive manufacturing with AFP/ATL.
All these technologies have driven the highly dynamic and rapidly changing composite materials industry to continue to move forward.