(Yicai Global) May 20 -- Key parts for China’s wind power sector which relies on imports for these are scarce due to Covid-19 and this will restrict local makers’ shipments and cause construction delays fatal to some projects as an end to subsidies to the sector is set to kick in in 2022, several Chinese energy companies said yesterday.

China’s massive power generation firm China Huaneng Group’s project construction is two to three months behind schedule because of the virus, said Zhang Xiaozhao, vice president of the Beijing-based firm’s new energy arm Huaneng Renewables. Delays in receipt of imported blades and ball bearings as the virus really took root abroad have hampered the progress of all host manufacturers to varying degrees because they depend on imports for these and other vital components.

China’s central government will stop subsidies to the wind power sector in 2022 and pass that hot potato to local authorities, the Ministry of Finance announced last year, but many localities have yet to issue corresponding policies. Huaneng will thus probably give up on projects it thinks will miss the deadline because of the coronavirus, Zhang said.

The pandemic broke out in Europe in March, either causing factories there to suspend production or halving it, and shock of this impact has yet to fully reverberate to China’s host makers, but they will run into problems arising from core parts shortage around late this month and in July, Miao Jun, president of large wind power equipment producer Shanghai Electric Wind Power Group, told Yicai Global.

Core parts supply remains a major factor influencing construction schedules, above all for those reliant on imports, Zhang Qiying, chief executive of wind power equipment maker Mingyang Smart Energy Group, and Tian Qingjun, senior vice president of Envision Energy, told Yicai Global, adding a shortage of bearings is most likely to form a capacity bottleneck.

Editor: Ben Armour