Chennai-based Indowind is close to placing an order from Ming Yang, a Chinese wind turbine manufacturer, sources close to the development have told Business Line .

Indowind recently announced its intention to develop farms in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka with a total capacity of 28 MW. A month ago, the company said that it had “finalised purchase of 14 machines of 2 MW capacity each.”

Although the company did not name the supplier of the wind turbines, industry sources said that Indowind was buying from Shanghai Electric, a Chinese power equipment major.

However, sources say that the plans have undergone a revision. It is likely to be Ming Yang, a company that has been wanting to enter India for some time now. Ming Yang's turbines are of 2.5 MW and Indowind is buying 10 of them, sources say.

Ming Yang is expected to set up a manufacturing base in India. In a conference call with analysts last month, the company had said that it was “having talks with the local enterprises, hoping to form joint ventures to build plants and win orders.”

It had said that it expected to “win our first overseas order in the second half of this year.” This indicates that Indowind might be Ming Yang's first customer outside China.

The significance of this to India is that it indicates the imminent entry of Chinese wind turbine manufacturers into India. Business Line had reported on August 17 that Sinovel, China's largest and world's second largest wind turbine manufacturer is close to a deal with Ghodawat group of Maharashtra to use the latter's facility to produce the machines in India.

The entry of Chinese into this sector is a worry for the incumbent wind turbine manufacturers, as typically the Chinese sell cheaper.

The costs would be comparable if they manufactured here with substantial local content, but if they import everything from China and assemble them here, then the Indian market is up for a shake-up.

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