Fortex Acquires Evergreen "Double Opposite" Division of Photovoltaic Industry Between China and U.S.

Evergreen Solar, one of the three photovoltaic companies in the United States, has been repeatedly mentioned in the "double reverse" of China PV, but recently a Hong Kong company - Forte China Investment Holdings Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Forte Investment ) Its acquisition means that evergreen solar energy may be born again.

“We won the auction in November.” On November 30, a person from Forte Investment expressed to the reporter on the phone. However, as an investment company, the person declined to disclose the next arrangement of Evergreen, including whether to transfer the production base to China.

In the past 10 years, China has been leading the world in photovoltaics, components, silicon materials and silicon wafers in the photovoltaic industry chain. However, in some high value-added sectors such as production equipment, Chinese companies are highly dependent on U.S. technology. This depends on components that run from the polysilicon device all the way to the downstream.

In 2010, China imported more than 2 billion U.S. dollars of polysilicon from the United States, and the transfer fee for equipment and technology was not less than 3 billion U.S. dollars, which is in stark contrast to China’s export volume of 2 billion U.S. dollars to the United States.

“U.S. business leaders are in technological innovation and equipment production, while China is longer in manufacturing and forms a clear division of labor. We have a lot of cooperation with U.S. R&D and equipment companies.” Hairun Solar CEO Yang Huaijin believes.

In other words, if the Chinese PV industry is damaged in the "double reverse," the US photovoltaic industry will also be affected.

Sino-US Industrial Division

Evergreen Solar is the third largest solar panel manufacturer in the United States. In 2010, the actual output of 180 megawatts accounted for about 10% of the total US production capacity. However, due to the high production cost in the United States, it began to phase out production in mid-March 2011.

Evergreen Solar once planned to cooperate with Shenzhen Haowei Solar Energy Co., Ltd. to move the US factory to Wuhan, so that the cost of the US$1.88/W in 2010 could be reduced to US$0.9/W, but it was later insolvent and went bankrupt.

Evergreen Solar stopped listing in August and entered the auction process in October. As the final takeover, Forte Investment spent US$6 million in cash to purchase the company’s core assets and paid US$7.6 million to purchase evergreen technology.

“Even if the Evergreen solar production line is transferred to China, but the value of a company is in its management and technical team, these takeovers should do their best to retain.” Li Boping, CEO of Nanjing Huabo Instrument Technology Co., Ltd., told reporters that the R&D center is located in the mainland, manufacturing The base has become a trend in China or Southeast Asia.

Prior to Evergreen Solar, California Sunpreme announced that it will build a 30 MW component plant at the Xiuzhou Industrial Park in Jiaxing, Zhejiang, and its headquarters and R&D center will remain in the United States.

Li Boping explained that China’s manufacturing costs are low, Europe and the United States rely on fully automatic production lines, and China basically depends on manpower, and the prices of some locally-made equipment are far lower than those of foreign countries, which makes fixed amortization very low, and it is the products that facilitate the market to quickly have commercial value.

China's polysilicon companies import polysilicon casting furnaces from GT Solar in the US, wafer companies import silicon materials from US companies such as MEMC and WACKER, and midstream battery manufacturers import production lines from the United States. For example, printing and PEEV use equipment from the United States Applied Materials. , And DESPATCH heat treatment equipment is more widely used; downstream system manufacturers imported battery inverters from STR and DuPont from imported inverters such as Saikang.

"Double anti" ** US manufacturers

The United States Innovalight with only 58 employees may be a bit small, but has helped Jinao, Yingli, Hanwha, Jinko and other Chinese PV modules to improve component performance; flexible solar modules have been named as one of the 2011 50 inventions by Time magazine. Solar, there are several Chinese PV companies are now in contact with it.

“The current situation is like this: Europe and the United States are doing research and development, but they need to attract capital and also need to make inspections on the technology. Both sides of China can meet it.” Yang Huaijin told reporters that photovoltaic companies do large-scale production and demand that research and development be more apt Actually, the combination of the two is not limited to trial and error, which is to shorten the research and development time. “As some technologies in Europe and the United States have delayed production for two to three years, combined with the production of Chinese companies, it can be shortened to one and a half years.”

The data can prove that: in 2007 PV modules were around RMB 24/W, but now it has dropped to RMB 6.5/W; at that time, the conversion rate of crystalline silicon cells was around 16%, but nowadays, new technologies such as quasi-monocrystals are emerging. In the small-scale commercial production stage, the highest conversion rate of SCHOTT can reach 19.9%.

Li Boping believes that low-cost manufacturing in China actually enables Europe and the United States to install photovoltaic electricity markets at a low cost.

“In fact, many downstream companies in Europe and the United States rely on their own countries and Chinese banks to grow up.” Li Boping said that European and American banks actually support EPC (design and construction contract) companies, which are basically European and American companies; Chinese banks **Interest rate is higher than foreign countries, about 10%, mainly supporting the manufacturing industry, “but component companies will give European and American EPC manufacturers three to six months of account period”, which means that the interest is borne by Chinese companies, and European and American manufacturers All benefit indirectly from it.

It is based on this factor that the US Solar Energy Industry Association (SEIA) has publicly supported the defense of Chinese companies following the CASE.

A spokesman for CASE, Kevin Rapids, said: "This trade case filed by companies with only 2% to 3% of the solar job market in the United States is putting the key targets on the US market at risk. , And ** to other 97% -98% of the United States solar industry practitioners."