Gas turbines, known as the "crown jewel" of the equipment manufacturing industry, reflect a country's comprehensive strength in the field of high-end manufacturing. For a long time, the global heavy-duty gas turbine market has been dominated by a few foreign companies. Recently, this pattern is ushering in new variables.
Recently, Shanghai Electric successfully won the bid for the Samalaju Combined Cycle Gas Turbine Unit 3 project in Sarawak, Malaysia. It will provide a complete set of main equipment such as gas turbines, steam turbines, generators, waste heat boilers and air cooling systems for this 500MW power station. It will also undertake the EPC general contracting and long-term service agreement for the entire life cycle of the main engine.
This is the first set of gas turbines manufactured by Shanghai Electric to be used overseas, and it is also an important step for domestic heavy-duty gas turbines to enter mature overseas markets.
"This is not only an equipment export, but also a substantial breakthrough for my country's heavy-duty gas turbines in the international commercial competition." said Li Wenkai, deputy director of the Power Generation Engineering Consulting Institute of the General Institute of Electric Power Planning and Design.
However, the highlight of this overseas trip is not only the device itself, but also the system capabilities behind the device.
Shanghai Electric provides a set of integrated solutions for the project. The core main equipment is manufactured by enterprises within the Shanghai Electric system and is unified for system integration.
This model of "collaborative manufacturing and unified integration of a full set of main equipment" is fundamentally different from the past multi-vendor splicing solutions.
According to the relevant person in charge of Shanghai Electric, under the multi-supplier splicing solution model, the owner/general contractor needs to bear the main responsibility for system integration, and the interfaces, parameters, control logic, etc. of different equipment need to be coordinated by themselves. The integrated solution provided by Shanghai Electric reduces supplier interface risks from the source and achieves the "four unifications" of responsible entities, technical interfaces, performance assurance and project management.
"Malaysia is a mature commercial competition market, and owners make selections based on technology, delivery and full life cycle costs." Liu Zhitan, deputy director of the Gas Power Generation Committee of the Chinese Society of Electrical Engineering, said that Shanghai Electric's gas turbine won the bid in this market, which means that China's gas turbine products and solutions have begun to receive commercial testing in mature markets.
System capabilities are the foundation, and whether you can enter mature overseas markets also depends on localized accumulation.
International layout has always been one of Shanghai Electric’s main lines. In Malaysia, Shanghai Electric has successively undertaken multiple projects such as the Balingian 2X300MW coal-fired power station, the Selangor Renewable Energy Phase I and II power station project, and TG12 renewable energy. It has also built a 106-kilometer-long 500kV transmission line in Sarawak and the first off-grid microgrid project in Sarawak.
These projects not only bring overseas orders, but also local project performance experience and synergy mechanisms between engineering, manufacturing and local services. For large energy equipment companies, this localization accumulation is an important support for core equipment to enter overseas markets.
From this perspective, the Samalaju project is a concentrated realization of Shanghai Electric’s overseas engineering accumulation and core equipment capabilities. The relevant person in charge of Shanghai Electric summarized it as an upgrade from the passive overseas expansion of "projects and equipment" to the active layout of "complete machine product output", laying the foundation for the subsequent internationalization of the entire chain of technology, services, and brands.
This also echoes changes in international market demand. At present, overseas owners are no longer satisfied with the scattered procurement of single equipment, but prefer one-stop, turnkey, and comprehensive solutions with full-cycle guarantee.
"However, for a long time, domestic high-end equipment exports have mostly focused on the export of stand-alone equipment. Market competition has concentrated on the hardware price level, with limited profit margins and insufficient brand premiums." Liu Zhitan said that through an integrated service system, Shanghai Electric has jumped out of the homogeneous track of pure hardware competition and moved from the single-point output of a single device to the systematic and ecological output of a full set of solutions, shaping a new image of China's high-end manufacturing brand.
Behind this breakthrough, there is a big industry background: global gas turbines are facing a structural shortage.
Data shows that the global demand for gas turbines (including aeroderivative, industrial, and heavy-duty) in 2025 is about 90-100GW, while the annual production capacity of major global manufacturers is only 55-60GW, and the supply-demand gap is as high as 30-40GW.
Li Wenkai said that against the backdrop of tight supply, overseas owners who had given priority to traditional international giants in the past began to have more room for supplier selection and were willing to accept proven Chinese complete machine solutions with shorter delivery cycles.
However, the emergence of a market window does not mean that the threshold for competition has been lowered. Whether a project breakthrough can be transformed into sustained market recognition through long-term operation and service is a greater challenge.
During the "15th Five-Year Plan" period, Shanghai Electric also clarified its international development goals and proposed "three transformations": from focusing on engineering going global to focusing on equipment going global, transforming from simple trade to international layout of production capacity and industrial chain, and transforming from a single enterprise going global to overall overseas layout and collaborative linkage.
When Chinese companies deeply participate in global competition with systematic capabilities, the status of China's high-end equipment in the global energy landscape will continue to increase.
