US TECH CO OPENS CHINA BRANCH TO SERVICE WIND

A small example of the big way New Energy opens up opportunity for US companies. If political leadership will lay the legislative groundwork to unleash US entrepreneurs, a new world can open up.

AMSC China Established to Se4rve Asia-Pacific Wind Energy, Power, Grid and Industrial Markets
October 30, 2007 (Business Wire via Yahoo Finance)

WHO
American Superconductor Corporation (AMSC), Greg Yurek, founder/CEO;

The AMSC franchise. (click to enlarge)

WHAT
AMSC will open “AMSC China” (branch offices in China). It has wind energy, power grid and industrial agreements already in place for a number of Chinese projects.

WHEN
- AMSC China is currently operating.
- PowerModule product has been selling since 2004.

WHERE
- AMSC’s China branch will be based in Suzhou National New and Hi-Tech Industrial Development Zone (SND), 80 kilometers west of Shanghai, China. It will also have a field office in Beijing.
- AMSC has US facilities in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania
- It intends to expand sales throughout the Asia-Pacific region and has negotiated deals from Southeast Asia to Korea.

Suzhou: China's city-of-the-future. The only thing lacking: the electricity to power it. (click to enlarge)

WHY
- AMSC is licensed by the Chinese government for domestic manufacturing and sales of AMSC's proprietary power electronics and superconductor products.
- AMSC China has 25 employees.
- AMSC PowerModule: a programmable, scalable power converter w/proprietary printed circuit board design allowing standard electronic manufacturing techniques and consistent, automated product assembly. Selling to wind turbine manufacturers.
- Also selling: next-generation PowerModule power converters as well as other power grid and industrial power products.
- Other new AMSC China deals: (1) Chinese turbine manufacturer Zhuzhou Electric Locomotive Research Institute (ZELRI). (2) Shanghai Electric Cable Research Institute (SECRI)

The future of the franchise.

QUOTES
- Yurek: "With its rapidly growing economy and increasing energy demands, China has become a key target market for AMSC in recent years…Today, approximately half our revenues are coming from the Asia-Pacific region, with China accounting for the largest fraction of those sales. By serving these markets locally, we believe we will foster stronger ties with our current customers and more rapidly develop new customers in the region. We also expect to be able to reduce costs for standard products like our PowerModule(TM) power converters by locally sourcing, assembling and testing certain non-proprietary components."
- Yurek: "We have been expanding our operations in the U.S. to meet the growing demand for these products…In time, we expect to also begin producing these higher power systems in China to recognize additional cost savings and better serve the local utility, industrial and wind markets…”