Remarks about the 60-year-anniversary of Dongfang Electric Machinery

October of the year 2018 sees the 60-year-anniversary of Dongfang Electric Machinery (DFEM) in Deyang, Sichuan province.

Found in 1958 based on the so-called Three-line Developing Scheme proposed by Chairman Mao, the leader of CCP before 1976, DFEM was initially named as Deyang Hydraulic Generation Apparatus Factory, aiming at providing large-scale hydro-generator systems, including hydro-turbines and related devices, for the hydropower plants to be developed in the west of China which was believed as the area that boasts the largest undeveloped hydro-energy all around the world. Over the period of reform and opening up, the rapid development of DFEM had remained, especially after the Chinese power system reformation started in 2002, which made it one of the largest corporation of generation equipment production at the end of the first decade of 21 century.

The construction of the second stage of Three-gorges Project can always be considered as the milestone of the large-scale generator industry, since DFEM, a state-owned David with mainly domestic engineers, overcame GE, an international Goliath with state-of-the-art technology in generation apparatus, in the largest hydro-power generation developing market, China. However, though rarely mentioned in the industrial field, the so-called technology-transfer-market program and the influence of state-owned investment should not go unnoticed in the economic and financial research, which have already been involved in some recent trade reports of the United States.

Except for hydro-power generation, DFEM also broke new ground in a large variety of power generation systems which was summarised as "Six generation fields develop at the same pace", particularly turbogenerators which remains the most profitable products of the corporation. Basing on the technologies provided by the former Soviet Union and purchased from Hitachi, a Japanese industrial corporation, the design scheme of turbogenerators in DFEM has changed beyond recognition in the developing of generators whose capacity is more than 1000MW, which helped DFEM become the biggest producer of large-scale solid-rotor synchronous generators for turbo plants around 2010 and also made its stock price reach the peak in both Shanghai and Hong Kong.

After 2012, the massive authorising and construction of thermal power stations in China seem to be a thing of the past, while the development of sustainable and renewable generations have been here to stay. DEC, which is the parent company of DFEM, used to be a remarkable competitor in the market of wind and solar power equipment but finally lost its status after the desperate competition over the span between 2012 and 2015, since the relating affairs have brought dramatical decrease in the interests of the corporation. It is hard to find reasons for this situation, but the management system of the state-owned enterprise which was enhanced and transferred after the recent administration is commonly supposed that is of utmost influence to make matters worse.

It is clear that there are significant glories in the history of DFEM (DEC at present), but the grand trophy cups listed in the showroom, including the Grand Prize of national scientific and technological progress awards, cannot mask the reality that crisis of this corporation, as well as the whole field, is looming, The idea used to be all the rage that a position in a company like DFEM can be stable all along seems to be a joke at present, and the phenomenon of the field has already been turned upside down. With experienced technical staffs and excellent workers in the firm, DFEM has to make inroads on the reformation of the management and financial system, while keeping track of the recent spots of the market like electrified transportation systems, to help turn the situation around. And these methods might be able to benefit the lasting of the corporation to celebrate its 100-year-anniversary.

Finally, though there are few reasons for me to hold a positive and optimistic view for the future of DFEM, mainly because of the political phenomenon, as a pupil who was educated in the primary school financially supported by the enterprise, a scholar who has collaborated with it in some research projects and a person born and developed in Deyang, I deeply wish that there would be a brilliant moment of all the staffs in DEC's 60-year-anniversary and that the firm can move with the times as the former leader president Jiang indicated in the lawn of the factory.