There's a third reason that Chinese goods are cheaper: lax or non-existent environmental regs.
BERLIN (AFP) – Germany's solar power industry, until recently the world leader in the technology, is facing an unprecedented crisis, analysts say, outshone by cheaper competitors from Asia, most notably Chinese firms.
Q-Cells, the world's biggest solar cell producer, last week issued a far from glowing set of results, with losses of 700 million euros (984 million dollars) in the first half of the year.
...
The main reason is simple: Chinese solar power companies are able to produce cells much more cheaply, due to lower labour costs and also the plummeting price for silicon, the raw material for solar cell manufacture.
...
"A large proportion of German solar cell and solar module producers will not survive," Patrick Hummel, an analyst from UBS, told the Financial Times Deutschland.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090818/sc_afp/germanychinaalternativesolarenergyenvironment/print
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
