Driven by the massive expansion of data centers and the accelerated electrification across society, global power demand is experiencing unprecedented growth, directly igniting the gas turbine market. According to the latest institutional research reports, global gas turbine orders reached approximately 38 gigawatts in the second quarter of this year. This marks a substantial 29% increase quarter-on-quarter and a staggering 71% surge year-on-year, setting a new all-time record. Amid this buying frenzy, the U.S. market performed particularly strongly, capturing nearly half of the total order share.
With lower carbon emissions compared to coal and more stable output characteristics than renewable sources like wind and solar, natural gas power generation is becoming the primary driver in bridging the new electricity demand gap. However, the explosive growth in demand has quickly disrupted the supply-demand balance. Some regions in Southeast Asia are already facing equipment shortages, severely constraining the deployment of new capacity. This supply shortage is directly reflected in prices; institutions predict that combined-cycle gas turbines delivered by 2031 will be priced at three times their levels last year. Domestic listed company Jereh Group also confirmed in a recent institutional survey that the selling prices of its gas turbine generator sets have seen a noticeable increase.
In terms of market competition, industry giants continue to firmly control core resources. In the second-quarter order rankings, Siemens Energy took the lead with approximately 12.5 gigawatts, followed closely by GE Vernova with 11.3 gigawatts, and Mitsubishi Power securing third place with 5.3 gigawatts. Despite record-breaking order volumes, capacity bottlenecks have become an unavoidable pain point for the entire industry. Taking GE Vernova as an example, its Power segment's backlog reached $111.6 billion by the end of the second quarter, with the backlog coverage extending from 4.91 years in the first quarter to 5.31 years. Meanwhile, its new gas turbine orders surged by 137% year-on-year, while actual deliveries declined quarter-on-quarter, widening the divergence between new orders and deliveries.
As a high-end manufacturing sector characterized by long value chains and heavy assets, power generation equipment has a very limited number of global suppliers for core high-temperature components such as rotors and combustion chambers. The lengthy capacity expansion cycles and stringent validation processes for new entrants make it difficult to rapidly release capacity in the short term. Against the backdrop of continuous order backlogs and restricted deliveries, the industry generally believes that 2026 will not be the peak of industry growth, and the gas turbine sector remains on a trajectory of accelerating upward momentum.
