Schott OFT Market Analysis Report: Asia's Power Capacity Expansion Saw Upswing 2013
Online, July 25, 2013 (Newswire.com) - Asian power generation development activity in the first three months of 2013 totaled 62.74 gig watts (GW), according to the latest quarterly project tracking report by Schott OFT Market Analysis, a well known provider of commodities news and analysis.
"This was 12% lower than in the same period of 2012, but was well up on the prior quarter - in fact, more than a fifth higher than in the last three months of 2012," said Martin Landers, Director of Schott OFT Market Analysis.
The earliest stage of the project development process is the announcement of planned new capacity. The amount of new capacity announced in the first quarter of 2013 was much the same as in the same period of 2012.
"But at more than 21 GW, the level of Q1 activity was almost double that of the fourth quarter of 2012, which appears to indicate an improvement in developer confidence," said Mr. Landers.
First quarter project approvals were approximately 12.85 GW, which was down versus a year ago but up almost twofold compared to Q4. But the amount of planned new power capacity actually signed to construction and equipment contracts was down 40% from both the prior quarter and Q1 of 2012.
"This seems to indicate that the revived confidence visible at the start of the project development pipeline has yet to turn into firm orders," Landers said. "This is not surprising, given the long gestation period of most power generation projects."
The Schott OFT Market Analysis's Power Report in Asia project tracker was developed by Schott OFT to identify trends in the Asian power generation market. It is a bottom-up aggregation of identified individual projects. Schott OFT tracks these projects as they move through the development pipeline from announcement to completion. The Schott OFT tracker only tracks projects registering a significant change in status during the quarter such moving from announcement to approval or to start of construction.