Trina Solar officially announced to build its first overseas manufacturing base in Thailand. It has set up Trina Solar Science & Technology (Thailand) Ltd., a subsidiary company in Thailand to invest in US$160 million in adding 500MW of PV module and 700MW of PV cell production capacity.
The new overseas manufacturing facility will be located in Rayong of Thailand. Production is projected to commence in late 2015 or early 2016. Trina Solar chooses Thailand as the new base of additional production capacity because of the nation’s proximity to key emerging markets in the Asia Pacific region as well as its favorable investment environment in terms of land acquisition and labor costs.
“The new factory will serve to diversify and expand Trina Solar's existing manufacturing capacity to meet growing demand from both our established key markets and emerging markets,” said Mr. Zhiguo Zhu, COO and President of Module Business Unit of Trina Solar. “We believe diversifying our global manufacturing capacity will allow us to better leverage resources more cost effectively, enhance our competitiveness in overseas markets and enable us to increase our global market share.”
Thailand has s sunny environment so it is regarded as one of the most potential PV markets in the world. The government also supports the solar sector through long-term PV subsidies and favorable policies. Foreign investment like Trina Solar’s will help create jobs and support local economic development while develop the national solar industry.
In the second phase of US-China trade disputes, Trina Solar was imposed on a 26.71% dumping tariff and a 49.79% subsidy tariff. Although the final ruling of the review of the 2012 edition anti-dumping and countervailing ruling might reduce the imposed tariffs, Trina Solar believes that diverse manufacturing bases would be a better developing strategy. Such overseas manufacturing facilities could not only expand its presence in more regions, they will reduce future impacts from different economic bodies.