Solar cell maker Neo Solar Power Energy Corp (新日光能源) yesterday said it is considering building a new solar module plant in the US to cope with new US tariffs on solar cells and modules.
US President Donald Trump on Tuesday approved recommendations from the US International Trade Commission to impose safeguard tariffs of up to 30 percent on solar cells and modules, and up to 50 percent for washers, citing the damage such imports could cause US manufacturers.
“We did think about building our solar module capacity, including constructing a new factory in the US, which is part of our restructuring efforts following a three-way merger,” Neo Solar chairman Sam Hong (洪傳獻) told a media briefing. “We are now seriously evaluating this option.”
“But the investment will be relatively small, at between NT$300 million and NT$500 million [US$10.2 million and US$17.1 million], with most of our new investments remaining in Taiwan,” Hong said.
The company is evaluating plans to build a new US solar module plant with an annual capacity of between 500 megawatts (MW) and 1 gigawatt, he added.
The new import tariffs will not have any significant impact on Neo Solar as less than 10 percent of its solar cell and module shipments are exported to the US, Hong said.
Neo Solar is to merge with local peers Gintech Energy Corp (昱晶能源) and Solartech Energy Corp (昇陽光電) to create a new entity, named United Renewable Energy Co (UREC, 聯合再生). The three-way merger is to be completed in the third quarter.
Gintech has a plant in Thailand that has an annual capacity of 750MW for solar cells, with about 15 to 20 percent of that capacity shipped to the US.
Solartech runs a plant in Malaysia that has an annual capacity of 200MW, with about half of that output shipped to Canada and the US.
The two companies said they are gradually reducing their exports to the US to minimize potential risks.
In Italy’s storied gold-making hubs, jewelers are reworking their designs to trim gold content as they race to blunt the effect of record prices and appeal to shoppers watching their budgets. Gold prices hit a record high on Thursday, surging near US$5,600 an ounce, more than double a year ago as geopolitical concerns and jitters over trade pushed investors toward the safe-haven asset. The rally is putting undue pressure on small artisans as they face mounting demands from customers, including international brands, to produce cheaper items, from signature pieces to wedding rings, according to interviews with four independent jewelers in Italy’s main
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has talked up the benefits of a weaker yen in a campaign speech, adopting a tone at odds with her finance ministry, which has refused to rule out any options to counter excessive foreign exchange volatility. Takaichi later softened her stance, saying she did not have a preference for the yen’s direction. “People say the weak yen is bad right now, but for export industries, it’s a major opportunity,” Takaichi said on Saturday at a rally for Liberal Democratic Party candidate Daishiro Yamagiwa in Kanagawa Prefecture ahead of a snap election on Sunday. “Whether it’s selling food or
CONCERNS: Tech companies investing in AI businesses that purchase their products have raised questions among investors that they are artificially propping up demand Nvidia Corp chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Saturday said that the company would be participating in OpenAI’s latest funding round, describing it as potentially “the largest investment we’ve ever made.” “We will invest a great deal of money,” Huang told reporters while visiting Taipei. “I believe in OpenAI. The work that they do is incredible. They’re one of the most consequential companies of our time.” Huang did not say exactly how much Nvidia might contribute, but described the investment as “huge.” “Let Sam announce how much he’s going to raise — it’s for him to decide,” Huang said, referring to OpenAI
The global server market is expected to grow 12.8 percent annually this year, with artificial intelligence (AI) servers projected to account for 16.5 percent, driven by continued investment in AI infrastructure by major cloud service providers (CSPs), market researcher TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday. Global AI server shipments this year are expected to increase 28 percent year-on-year to more than 2.7 million units, driven by sustained demand from CSPs and government sovereign cloud projects, TrendForce analyst Frank Kung (龔明德) told the Taipei Times. Demand for GPU-based AI servers, including Nvidia Corp’s GB and Vera Rubin rack systems, is expected to remain high,
RSS