Tainergy Tech, the solar cell manufacturing subsidiary of Kenmec Mechanical Engineering, expects its operation to return to profitability in 2012. The market will rebound after hitting the bottom in the first quarter, Tainery said.
The anti-dumping and anti-subsidy probe initiated by the US government seems to be causing solar firms to transfer orders to Taiwan, said Tainergy. Many China-based solar firms have been trying to find a solution to continue selling solar products in the US market and one of the solutions is to buy solar cells from Taiwan-based firms while producing modules in a third location. However, this is likely to increase production costs making the products less competitive in terms of price.
Tainergy indicated that if a tariff of 10% is levied as a result of the probe, Taiwan-based firms will still not be able to compete with China-based peers. However, if the tariff rate is around 20-30%, then Taiwan-based firms will have a chance.
Tainergy's current solar module capacity is 50MW and targets capacity to reach 100MW in 2012. The current utilization rate is 50%, said Tainergy. The firm noted that the solar market in first-quarter 2012 is likely to be better than fourth-quarter 2011.
Article translated by Jackie Chang
