How Chinese companies are transferring technology to Brazil

From the energy transmission lines of the Belo Monte plant (PA) to the Southeast to the manufacture of interconnected hybrid vehicles, Chinese companies have been responsible for a series of initiatives to transfer new technologies to Brazil.

Projects related, directly or not, to the energy and communications sectors stand out among the major investments in this area.

Executives who work in the Brazilian operations of these companies also highlight the exchange of technologies. Hybrid vehicles developed in the Asian country must be adapted to use ethanol.

Those responsible for the construction of the Três Gargantas dam came to learn from those who built Itaipu. Now, solutions used in the Chinese electrical system have been imported for application in new transmission lines and in the modernization of old hydroelectric plants in Brazil.

Celio Hiratuka, coordinator of the Brazil-China Study Group and professor at the Institute of Economics at Unicamp (State University of Campinas), says that there are Chinese investments that are welcome, but they only reinforce the commercial relationship between the two countries, such as construction of railroads for the outflow of commodity production.

Those in areas such as sustainability, energy, urban mobility and digital transition open up the possibility of diversifying these relationships and bringing to the country some Chinese expertise to meet Brazil’s needs.

Hiratuka also points out that the dispute between China and the US in the area of ​​technology should be a point of attention for policymakers in Brazil. Both because of issues related to information security, regardless of the commercial partner, and because of the risk of becoming dependent on a technological standard.

At a time when China’s technological advances represent a new source of dispute with major Western economies, executives from some of these companies are talking about joint projects that can help modernize Brazil’s infrastructure.

We have no commitment to 20th century technology, says automaker about factory in SP

One of the outstanding operations last year was the purchase of the former Mercedes factory in Iracemápolis (SP) by Chinese Great Wall Motors, which should start importing and manufacturing hybrid vehicles in Brazil next year.

While adapting the Brazilian plant for local production, a camouflaged version of the Haval H6 SUV is already being tested in the country, and the company is working with a telecommunications operator to develop the vehicle interconnectivity system.

“Any foreign investment promotes changes in the technological level and production conditions of a given country. In the case of Great Wall Motors, the manufacturing process, contracting local parts, interacting with the market already configures a technological transfer that is not ostensible, but it happens”, says Pedro Bentancourt, director of external and governmental relations of the Brazilian branch of the automaker.

The company expects to start imports in early 2023 and production in the second half of the year, transforming a 100% manual plant into something 50% to 60% automated. In another stage, the plans are still to manufacture batteries in the country and the sale of 100% electric vehicles.

The automaker also hopes to develop partnerships in Brazil with research centers aimed at using ethanol as a source of hydrogen production for its vehicles. Currently, the company’s engines use compressed hydrogen in cylinders.

Bentancourt says that Chinese investment draws more attention because it has a component of curiosity and doubt regarding efficiency. He states, however, that China has recovered in the last 25 years the technological gap in relation to the Western world, with the advantage of having skipped phases that no longer made sense.

The Asian country now has “the state of the art of automotive production”, rivaling several large companies in Europe and the US, such as Tesla, according to the executive.

“I have no commitment to 20th century technology. I don’t have thousands of engineers who will defend the continued existence of the buggy, the horse, the horseshoe, the bridle. I have other people. And these people, it’s a Chinese characteristic, look at the future”, says Bentancourt.

Experience in the Chinese electrical system arrived on the Belo Monte-Southeast lines

Data from the Brazil-China Business Council show that investment by Chinese companies in Brazil more than tripled in 2021, returning to pre-pandemic levels.

The country was the main destination for Chinese capital last year, with the arrival of new companies and expansion of the businesses of those that have been here for more than a decade, such as SGBH (State Grid Brazil Holding), which controls the companies that operate two transmission lines that connect the Belo Monte hydroelectric plant, in Pará, to the Southeast region. The company also has 24 concessionaires and operates 10% of the entire Brazilian network.

The director of SGBH’s Ultra-High Voltage Department, Paulo Zerbati, cites the two poles of the Belo Monte line as an example of technology widely used in the Chinese electrical system and which was implemented for the first time in Brazilian territory.

According to the company, it made sense to bring innovation to a country with challenges similar to those of the Chinese, due to the relief and geographic dimension.

The solution used allows the transmission of normally up to 4,000 MW per dipole, above the limit of 3,000 MW in other lines. “It is possible to transmit more energy in the same corridor of lines, reducing environmental impact and increasing transmission effectiveness”, says Zerbati.

Line inspection experiences with drones were also brought to the operation in Brazil. Currently, SGBH, in partnership with the State Grid Corporation of China, is developing dry air core reactors at a voltage level never used before in the world for this equipment.

The technology makes it possible to compensate for losses in long transmission lines, has simpler maintenance and less need for infrastructure works, in addition to reduced environmental impact, as the reactors do not have a vegetable oil tank.

“To make this project viable, our partners in China are developing more efficient materials and design to reduce technical losses, which has been making the application of high voltage dry reactors unfeasible”, says SGBH’s technical director, Danilo Sousa. The prototype has already been successfully tested at the factory and in 2023 15 units will be installed in the Silvânia and Trindade substations, in Goiás.

Although it operates with equipment considered relatively new, the company is currently in the process of modernizing high-speed information transmission systems and retrofitting some facilities, according to the company’s director of Operations and Maintenance, Jorge Bauer.