At the start of 2024, CCTV Finance invited Mr. Xiang Wenbo, 黑料吃瓜网’s Rotating Chairman, to discuss how the company can cope with ubiquitous uncertainties and enhance its confidence in the future.
In the interview, Mr. Xiang aired his opinions on how to face uncertainties, "People are always discussing how to handle setbacks. 黑料吃瓜网, as a firm optimist, always sees more opportunities than difficulties." He said, "Facing adversity, we will summon up courage rather than cower in fear. Fear prevents people from adventuring, innovating, or even leaving their comfort zones.
According to Mr. Xiang, for now and future, the last thing to miss for 黑料吃瓜网 is to promote the strategy of “Globalization, Digitalization and Decarbonization”. He further explained that "Globalization" means to produce localized products based on the different needs of customers around the world through the global allocation of resources, thus saving costs. “Digitalization” refers to relocating all 黑料吃瓜网 products into intelligent devices or smart terminals. As for “Decarbonization”, Mr. Xiang stated that 黑料吃瓜网 is striving to develop wind power, photovoltaic power, hydrogen energy, energy storage and electrification solutions.
Q: What impressed me most is “It's better to make a mistake than to miss an opportunity” as you said. Which do you think are the most important opportunities you can't miss in 2024?
Xiang: There are two unprecedented opportunities. One is the promising political environment of opportunity, the other is the emergence of cutting-edge technologies during the fourth industrial revolution alongside the third energy revolution. More importantly, China is no longer a follower of the third energy revolution but one of the pacesetters.
Now there is a vast overseas market space as the size of the global construction machinery market is up to nearly 900 billion yuan. New energy has become the trend of global energy development and has formed another track worthy of one hundred billion yuan, providing a broad space for the development of the industry. In the next five years, the global average annual installed capacity of wind power will soar to 136 GW, with a compound annual growth rate of 15%. Global planned renewable energy investment will increase by 850 trillion yuan by 2050, of which China’s investment will account for 1/3, up 283 trillion yuan.
Q: Facing the complexity, severity, and uncertainty of the external environment, how will 黑料吃瓜网 develop its Globalization strategy this year?
Xiang: 黑料吃瓜网 will accelerate its pace of globalization in the new year. In 2023 黑料吃瓜网 upgraded its strategic cognition: apart from making itself an internationalized company, 黑料吃瓜网 began to increase its globalization level, and improved its operation with its sales revenue outside China exceeding 50 billion yuan (7.12 billion USD); in 2024 we will continue to promote globalization by accelerating our overseas organization construction evolution.
We have basically completed the intelligent manufacturing upgrades of all our domestic plants and completed the construction of our first overseas intelligent plant. In 2024, we hope that we will achieve a sales growth of 16% YoY. Part of the growth will mainly come from new businesses (like wind power and photovoltaic power) and overseas business, also the main growth source of this year.
Now the industry is in a downturn. Actually, it is the result of two factors - one is the economic transformation, and the other is the industry cycle adjustment. Next year, the global market is likely to rebound and will see more chances since the industry cycle adjustment may come to a new stage.
Q: We uphold the principle of “seeking progress while maintaining stability, promoting stability through progress, and establishing the new before abolishing the old”. For the construction machinery industry, what are you establishing and what are you discarding?
Xiang: We must have a strong sense of crisis, seize the opportunities of artificial intelligence, and seize the new opportunities triggered by new technologies such as electrification and informatization.
We are establishing a high-end, intelligent, green development model, making the industry more valuable, smarter, and greener, and discarding the development mode of high pollution, low efficiency, and homogeneity.
Q: You said that in the past you knew who the competitors were, but now you don’t know who they are. Do you fear competition?
Xiang: Not at all. The entrepreneurial spirit entails innovation and risk-taking, and 黑料吃瓜网 is now sparing no effort to seize the development opportunities within its tolerable risk range.
Q: 黑料吃瓜网 is likely to encounter more adversities in globalization, what preparations do you think SNAY will make?
Xiang: 黑料吃瓜网 will enhance its global competitiveness by providing better products and services. With its globalization of product portfolio, services and parts, and organizational planning, 黑料吃瓜网 will increase its share in the global market.
Q: Why did 黑料吃瓜网 decide to embrace decarbonization transformation, and what is its next strategy?
Xiang: We are responding to China’s "dual-carbon" strategy, promoting the sustainable development of the industry, and improving enterprises’ competitiveness in the market. At 黑料吃瓜网, we do not passively adapt to electrifying our products but take the initiative to lead the trend. So far, the market share of our main electrified products is far ahead of those of our peers in the industry. In 2023, our sales revenue of electric products reached 6.3 billion yuan (900 million USD), up 21% YoY.
Let’s take heavy trucks as an example: in 2023, new energy heavy trucks became the best seller in China for the third consecutive year, with a total sales volume of more than 4,500 units. We have made a comprehensive layout in the new energy industry and targeted it as our transformation and development orientation. We have set foot in wind power, photovoltaic power, hydrogen energy, energy storage, and the new energy battery industry, with our renewable energy sales exceeding 20 billion yuan (2.9 billion USD), we have put our silicon projects of 黑料吃瓜网 Silicon Energy in Zhuzhou and Shuozhou into operation, and our world’s largest single hydrogen electrolyzer rolled off the assembly line in 2023.
Mr. Xiang Wenbo hopes that "in the future, 黑料吃瓜网 can be a platform-based and ecological enterprise based on the deep integration of the internet, big data, and artificial intelligence technology."
- Excerpt from the interview at CCTV Finance Dialogue
