Mosel Vitelic Inc., a Taiwan-based semiconductor maker, has announced to halt its PV cells production. Although Mosel’s production capacity is too small to cause serious impact to the global solar PV supply chain, the retreat rings the alarm bell among third-tier PV manufacturers.
Mosel has 160MW of standard multi-si PV cell production capacity and mainly ships its products to Taiwanese and European customers. It entered into the solar PV industry in 2007 yet was severely injured by the financial crisis in 2008. Moreover, Mosel has several long-term contracts so it can only product PV cells with costs higher than average. The factors lead to continuous operation loss for years, reinforcing the company to halt the PV cell business.
On the press conference, Mosel’s spokesman, Mr. Chou, mentioned the 19.5% anti-dumping tariffs imposed by U.S. ITC under the US-China solar trade disputes. To Mosel, neither the business environment nor the operational situation is beneficial for them to carry on the solar PV cell production, “after evaluating every aspects of the PV business, the company decided to halt producing PV cells to prevent further loss,” said Chou.
In addition, Mosel will rent or sell its PV equipment to add capital for running the company, which focuses mainly on semi-conductors. Production line shut-down and layoffs will be conducted according to relevant rules.
Mosel is the second Taiwanese PV company that announced to retreat from solar PV business. CMC Group, a Taiwan-based company that makes media storage devices such as blue-ray discs, has decided to withdraw its investments in two PV companies. Both companies are categorized as so-called third-tier companies.
Analysts at EnergyTrend comment on the “ebb tide” among the third-tier manufacturers. With limited production scale, the companies are unable to produce PV cells with efficiencies as high as first- and second-tier makers, and the production costs are also less competitive. Lower efficiency and higher costs form unresolvable barriers for them to operate profitably. In Taiwan and China, more and more third-tier PV manufacturers will halt production and retreat from solar business, so expect analysts of EnergyTrend.