The Shanghai Business Review recently reported the European Union Chamber of Commerce has raised further complaints about discrimination against Western companies in the Chinese marketplace. Much of the consolidation occurring in China industry, though, is premature, much like the American teenager who believes at age 15 he’s entitled to drive the family SUV because he’s all grown up. Many of the sectors that rely on extensive R&D and innovative approaches to technology application are wholly immature in China, however. In the September 2010 issue Eurobiz Magazine I write in my China Energy column that:

The overwhelming majority of Chinese engineers and the companies that employ them are quite literally without application knowledge of the technologies required to meet the conditions into which the wind turbines are thrust, especially in the rough conditions of offshore installations. More than a few European General Managers and CEOs have told me Chinese buyers for their components and chemical processes expect the vendors to educate the Chinese on the specifications their parts require. As the CEO of one Danish components maker expressed to me, “We ask them [Chinese buyers] for specifications and they ask us what the specifications should be, since we are ‘the experts’.” The lack of knowledge and experience of domestic wind power components makers of many of the domestic turbine and components makers is a constant theme in discussions with Western vendors. Vendors have found they have to provide additional training and longer sales cycles to potential and current customers in order to make and keep sales in China.

Check out more of the Eurobiz article here.