At a time when solar manufacturers around the world are reeling from overproduction, low prices and narrowing margins, there’s a new entry in the field.
Taiwan-based Foxconn Technology Group, which is the largest contract manufacturer of electronics, including the iPhone, is building a solar panel plant in China.
After lowering solar cell prices a historic 62% this year, Chinese companies will have a new competitor. "Foxconn plans to build new factories with undreamed-of scale and lower cost," says Jenny Chase at Bloomberg New Energy Finance. "It will push capacity higher and prices lower."
Foxconn operates with a 5.6% gross margin on the electronics it produces, making the prospect of a 13% margin for solar quite attractive, even though it’s considered a deathnell by solar manufacturers accustomed to margins double that or more.
When shipments were surging last year, the average margin for low cost Chinese solar suppliers was a healthy 24.6%, according to Bloomberg. Trina Solar (TSL)’s gross margin was 33.2% and Yingli’s (YGE) was 31.5%.
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Alex,
Can you or somebody give me more emmidiate explainations of “this guy”‘s solutions. I’m frustrated by the promo and long sales pitch with my first research. I know the solution may not be easy, but I don’t believe it is as complicated as the middle men want us to believe. The ingrained warfare that the fossil fuel indursty has waged on the investments in sustainable industries has been devastating. “Truth is the first casualty.” The Moon landing was a government project, we the people.(albiet a fear of “the other”, the Solviets helped “fuel” it. I imagine the solar industry has projects they want to protect, but disclosure, accountablility, and transparency, so to speak, are of the essense. Maybe your on to something, but it shouldn’t be so criptic.