In August 1937, the Tianjin Yongli Tanggu Alkali Plant created by the famous patriotic industrialist Fan Xudong was occupied by the invading Japanese troops. In the patriotic spirit of “closing the plant rather than accepting the money from the invading Japanese troops”, Fan Xudong overcame many difficulties to move the plant to Sichuan Province together with an elite team of the plant which included the famous chemist and US Dr. Hou Debang. On March 21, 1938, the Sichuan Yongli Plant was built in the address of Wutongqiao Laolongba. In order to bear the national humiliation history in mind, the place of the new plant was named “New Tanggu”.

For the purpose of preparing for war, adjusting the allocation of productive force, and responding to “The third-tire construction should be carried out without delay” the call of the Central Committee of the Party and President Mao, on October 25, 1964, the State Development Planning Commission sent a mission to establish Dongfeng Electric Machinery Factory whose location was selected on the former site of the former Sichuan Yongli Plant with nuclear fuel refining equipment as its main products, that is machine No.3 and machine No.4. On May 24, 1965, the on-site headquarters of Dongfeng Electric Machinery Factory held a grand opening ceremony, which opened the prelude to the construction of Dongfeng Electric Machinery Co., Ltd..

In 1982, the military production was stopped while the production lines were reserved. The company started to research and develop household electrical appliances, such as Tianshi washing machine and electric fan, which were popular and fell short of demand.

In 1988, the company switched from manufacturing military products to goods for civilian use in all respects, and began to explore the road to development with power generation equipment as the leading product.

In 2001, the company carried out “debt-to-equity swap” and established Sichuan Dongfeng Electric Machinery Co., Ltd., completing its demutualization.

In March 2009, Dongfang Electric (Leshan) New Energy Equipment Co., Ltd. was established.

In November 2010, the name of the company was officially changed to Dongfeng Electric Machinery Co., Ltd. of DEC, being the wholly-owned subsidiary of DEC.

In April 2018, the company was integrated into a mixed ownership enterprise with stocks held by Orient Qianhai Asset Management Co., Ltd, joint by China DEC and shared by the core team of the company.