About 50% of The Firms in China's Solar Industry Have Suspended Production

About 50% of the firms in China's solar industry have suspended production, according to the country's Guangzhou Daily. The daily cited the solar energy division of CSG Holding as claiming that half of the solar firms have stopped production, 30% have halved their output and 20% are trying to maintain certain levels of production. Digitimes Research's findings have indicated that only tier-one solar firms in China had capacity utilization rates over 80% in the first half of 2011 while tier-two and tier-three firms were already facing falling capacity utilizations rates. Guangzhou Daily stated that oversupply and significant price drops are the reasons for the firms to shut down production. The report also indicated that China firms have been facing increasing production costs following news on September 2011 that one of the large-size solar players had a chemical leak at one of its plants that polluted a nearby river. This means the other solar firms now face increasing costs to prevent such pollution while suffering from sharp price drops and low demand. Source: www.digitimes.com