Chinese solar power firms elbowing out European rivals
April 28, 2011 Category Alternative energy, Environment
Chinese companies are attacking Western dominance in solar power, undercutting bigger rivals and winning orders in the booming USD12 billion photovoltaic power equipment industry. HSBC expects a 20% growth in global solar-power demand this year to 20 GW, thanks to solid demand from Europe and rising orders from markets such as Canada and India. Germany’s Centrotherm Photovoltaics and U.S. firms Applied Materials and GT Solar were the biggest equipment suppliers in 2010, according to California-based research firm VLSI, but Chinese companies are catching up fast. State-owned China Electronics Technology Group Corp (CETC), through its unit 48th Research Institute (CETC-48), was the industry’s No 9 in VLSI’s ranking, marking the first Chinese company to make it to the league of big equipment makers. An increasing number of equipment makers are boosting production capacity and winning orders. Earlier this month, Zhejiang Jinggong Science & Technology said it won a CNY649 million contract to supply solar equipment to the country’s largest polysilicon company GCL-Poly Energy Holdings. The company had an order backlog of up to CNY1.8 billion as of March, according to KGI Research. China is the world’s biggest buyer of PV equipment, representing 51% of the market in 2010, up from 35% in 2006. It will remain the biggest buyer of PV equipment this year and next with the country’s plan to build 2,000 new solar cell manufacturing lines over the period, according to Nomura Securities. Home to the world’s largest solar cell producers such as Suntech Power Holdings and Yingli Green Energy Holding, China had been the biggest buyer of PV equipment from mostly European suppliers such as Centrotherm, Meyer Burger Technology and Manz Automation. But as local manufacturers like CETC, Jiangsu Huasheng Tianlong Photoelectric and Beijing Sevenstar Electronics Co improved product technology and boosted capacity, an increasing number of Chinese cell and panel makers are turning to locally produced equipment. Some local producers are undercutting rivals’ prices for equipment such as ingot-casting furnaces, screen printers and cutting blades by as much as 30%.
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