Green Energy Technology Inc (綠能科技), the nation’s biggest solar wafer maker by capacity, is in talks to manage a competitor’s plants as part of industry-wide consolidation spurred by global oversupply.
The companies may sign an accord next month, Green Energy Technology president Swean Lin (林士源) said in an interview on Thursday, declining to name the potential partner. No new wafer plants will be built as part of the agreement, said Lin, who expects a wafer shortage in 2016 as the number of makers decreases.
“There will be fewer than 10 solar wafer makers surviving” within five years, Lin said from his Taipei office, adding that European and US firms have already consolidated.
Overcapacity in the global solar industry has caused companies to post losses and spurred consolidation. Green Energy reported a first-half net loss of NT$396 million (US$13 million) as solar wafer prices declined, while Suntech Power Holdings Co (尚德) — once the world’s biggest solar-panel maker — saw its main unit fall into bankruptcy last year and Germany’s Q-Cells SE was acquired by South Korea’s Hanwha Group in 2012.
Green Energy’s stock has fallen 31 percent this year, compared with the 1.2 percent gain on the benchmark TAIEX and the company may also sell shares in a private placement, Lin said, without naming any prospective investors.
“We’re always seeking private-placement targets,” he said, adding that the company may also form partnerships in solar modules, without giving details.
Tatung Group (大同), Green Energy’s parent company, in June struck an alliance with Taiwan-based Gintech Energy Corp (昱晶), under which they set up a module venture. Green Energy manages wafer production at the unit.
After a US anti-dumping investigation against Taiwanese and Chinese firms, Lin said he is mulling building a solar module plant in Mexico, where Tatung Group has a monitor-assembly plant.
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