Hydrogen sector asks EU to help local firms compete with China
Adds comment from Thyssenkrupp Nucera in paragraph 8
By Kate Abnett
BRUSSELS, July 1 (Reuters) -European manufacturers of hydrogen equipment have urged the European Union to step in to help the industry compete with cheaper Chinese producers, in a letter seen by Reuters on Monday.
The companies, among them Thyssenkrupp Nucera NCH2.DE, Siemens Energy ENR1n.DE, and Nel Hydrogen NEL.OL, want Brussels to do more to ensure Europe-made equipment powers the EU's plan by 2030 to produce 10 million tonnes of renewable hydrogen using electrolysers, machines that use electricity to split water to produce the green fuel.
China is rapidly expanding its production of hydrogen equipment and is now home to 40% of the world's electrolyser manufacturing capacity, up from 10% last year, the letter said, adding that state subsidies were giving Chinese firms an edge.
"This skewed playing-field creates unfair competition and puts European electrolyser manufacturers at a significant disadvantage," said the letter to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
"Once a technology or its supply chain is lost, it is impossible to bring it back," said the letter, which was dated on Monday and first reported by the Financial Times.
Siemens Energy declined to comment beyond the contents of the letter.
The European firms asked Brussels to introduce "resilience criteria" that would favour local firms in upcoming auctions from the bloc's Hydrogen Bank funding scheme, and ensure certain parts of the production process are located in Europe.
"It is not about closing the European market, it is about ensuring fair competition in the European market and building up resilient value chains," Christoph Noeres, the head of green hydrogen at Thyssenkrupp Nucera, told Reuters.
The EU hydrogen bank awarded 720 million euros to seven EU projects in April. Industry sources have said the low-priced bids from some successful projects indicated that they would be using cheaper Chinese equipment.
The EU is toughening its stance against China on green technologies, to attempt to ensure European industries can compete globally and avoid deepening Europe's reliance on Beijing for key building blocks of the clean energy transition.
Brussels last month announced tariffs on imported Chinese electric cars, and is investigating Chinese subsidies for wind and solar suppliers.
Reporting by Kate Abnett; additional reporting by Christoph Steitz; editing by Paul Simao and David Evans
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