Monday, August 13, 2012

China's Solar Industry on the Verge of Bankruptcy (LDK; STP; TSL: CSIQ)

From China Daily:
Domestic solar sector in trouble: report
 China's solar industry is close to the edge of bankruptcy, investment bank Maxim Group said in a recent report, Economic Information, cited by Xinhua, reported on Aug 8.

The debt of 10 of China's largest solar energy companies totaled $17.5 billion, the report said. It particularly pointed out that LDK Solar is most likely to go bankrupt. The company was the first in East China's Jiangxi province to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange, but has been hit by substantial debt as orders shrank and prices dropped for its products....MORE
So how do you support an industry that can't live without subsidies and still be on the good side of the WTO?
From UPI:
China the next solar market for China?
Despite uncertainty in export markets due to trade disputes, the prospects are still good for China's domestic solar market, experts say.

Last week the Chinese government confirmed that it had raised its target for solar energy capacity by 40 percent, to 21 gigawatts by 2015.

Figures from China's National Energy Administration indicate that in 2011, China's installed solar capacity was about 3 gigawatts, or about 10 percent of the world's total.

Beijing's solar target increase comes about two weeks after a consortium of European solar companies filed a trade complaint with the European Commission, accusing the Chinese of dumping solar products in Europe. And in March, the United States imposed anti-subsidy duties of around four percent on major Chinese companies, followed in May by anti-dumping duties of 31 percent....MORE