Chairman of Sinovel has resigned as of one of the country’s largest makers of wind turbines struggles amid an industry downturn

May 16, 2013 Leave a comment

05.15.2013 18:20

Head of Sinovel Resigns amid Company Struggles

Wei Chiyuan steps down as chairman after pursuing reforms that could not keep firm profitable during industry downturn

By staff reporter Pu Jun

(Beijing) – The chairman and acting president of Sinovel Wind Energy Group Co. has resigned as of one of the country’s largest makers of wind turbines struggles amid an industry downturn.Wei Chiyuan submitted a letter of resignation on May 13, the company said. Company director Liu Hui also resigned.

Wang Yuan will take over as Sinovel chairman and Liu Zhengqi becomes president. Wang has been director of Sinovel’s board since July 2008. He is also the vice president of Dalian Huarui Heavy Industry Group Co., a subsidiary of Sinovel’s largest shareholder, Dalian DHI DCW Group. Liu has been Sinovel’s vice president since 2006.

Wei was named Sinovel’s acting president, replacing Han Junliang, in August 2012. In March, he was appointed chairman.

Sources close to Sinovel said Wei has led a series of reforms to the company’s operations and management, including reorganizing the company’s structure and closing weak subsidiaries. The company also planned to set up an subsidiary this year to handle investments in new wind power projects and other industries.

However, such efforts have failed to boost Sinovel’s performance amid a market downturn. A company report showed that Sinovel’s revenue was 4 billion yuan last year, down 58 percent from 2011. It had a net loss of 582 million yuan a year after recording a net profit of 598 million.

Bloomberg statistics show that Sinovel’s market share in China fell to 10 percent in 2012. In 2011, it was more than 20 percent.

Filed under Macro Trends

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