CNNC explores and exploits energy resources and develops associated technologies in nuclear energy as well as in renewable energies such as wind power and photovoltaics.

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In addition to designing and managing its own nuclear reactors, the group also designs and builds oil and petrochemical equipment. Finally, it provides radioactive waste management and decommissioning services for nuclear installations.

Positioning.

In a context of very strong national competition, CNNC wishes to position itself as a credible and structured player. It merged in February 2018 with China Nuclear Engineering & Construction (CNEC), the national nuclear power plant manufacturer. In doing so, CNCC became a giant in the civil nuclear sector, with 150,000 employees, weighing more than USD 100 billion on the stock market.

A Chinese nuclear dynamic?

Other Chinese operators have embarked on the technology race, starting with China General Nuclear Power (CGN) which was until then the country’s main power plant developer.

This emulation between Chinese operators was reflected in the commissioning in 2018, in less than three months, of four so-called third generation reactors. The first of which is an EPR built by CGN, in partnership with Electricité de France in Taishan, followed one day later by the AP1000 American technology (Westinghouse) for CNNC, at the Sanmen site.

CNNC building on partnerships.

For its international development and in order to compete on the global civil nuclear scene, CNNC has established partnerships with more than a hundred companies in more than forty countries in its various fields of activity since the 1990s.

In France, the group has for instance developed partnerships with Framatome and Orano (formerly Areva) for the reprocessing of nuclear power plant fuels. A recycling plant project with Orano, with a capacity of eight hundred tonnes for EUR 12 billion, was announced in June 2018.

CNNC expanding.

CNNC has otherwise been expanding on international nuclear energy markets since 2013, with the export of two reactors to Pakistan for EUR 9.6 billion. Since then, the group has sold seven power plants and eight reactors to seven countries and is in discussions on more than forty projects.

CNNC relies in particular on the China Zhongyuan Engineering Corporation (CZEC), which presents itself as “the only exporter of the nuclear industrial chain in China” and has opened offices in Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Algeria, demonstrating its intentions to export nuclear products along the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) to the Middle East, North Africa and Latin America region, while CGN focuses on the European market.

CNNC innovating.

CNNC is also innovating with a third generation reactor model, the Hualong One, which promises longevity, efficiency and safety and aims to compete with the French EPR.

Fourteen of these reactors are under construction, two of which are being installed in Karachi. Nicknamed as the “business card of China”, these advanced and innovative reactors are intended to be a “flagship brand” of Chinese industry on the international scene and along the Belt and Road Initiative. It provides a framework for facilitating China’s access to key decision-makers and the signing of memoranda of understanding, thus opening the door to negotiations on other Belt and Road-labelled projects.

This insight was originally published in French in « La Lettre de la Chine Hors Les Murs » n 26, 21/11/2018 by the French External Trade Advisors (Comite National des Conseillers du Commerce Exterieur).

Photo by Vincent Tantardini on Unsplash