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China Solar Firms Paying Price of Global Dominance – FT

Even China’s vast domestic market can’t soak up the excess capacity of its solar power industry


China's Trina Solar is looking at a third factory in Vietnam, sources say.
A worker inspects solar panels at a farm in Dunhuang, 950km northwest of Lanzhou in Gansu province in this Reuters file photo from Sept 2013. Photo: Reuters

 

China is beginning to see a downside to its dominance of the global solar power industry with excess capacity leading to shrinking margins and slumping stock values, the Financial Times reported.

Chinese solar-panel makers now account for 80% of global production capacity but the cost of that victory is now looking too high, the report went on, with its solar firms able to build over 860 gigawatts of solar modules annually.

Solar cell manufacturers like Longi Green Energy Technology, JA Solar Technology and Trina Solar have seen their stocks fall more than 50% in the past year and the sector’s operating margins have halved over the past four years.

Read the full story: The Financial Times

 

  • By Sean O’Meara

 

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Sean O'Meara

Sean O'Meara is an Editor at Asia Financial. He has been a newspaper man for more than 30 years, working at local, regional and national titles in the UK as a writer, sub-editor, page designer and print editor. A football, cricket and rugby fan, he has a particular interest in sports finance.

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