The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on May 24. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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◙ Lenovo (HKEx: 992) Reports Fiscal Q4 and Full Year Results (Businesswire)
◙ China Mobile (HKEx: 941) to Spend 20 Bln Yuan on Handset Subsidies This Year – CEO (Chinese article)
◙ Suntech (NYSE: STP) Reports Q1 Financial Results (PRNewswire)
◙ Sina’s (Nasdaq: SINA) Weibo Microblog Incorporates Web Search (English article)
◙ TCL (HKEx: 1070) Showcases Its LED SMART Television in “Marvel’s The Avengers” (Busineswire)
Just when it looked like a trade war had been averted in the important solar energy sector earlier this year, the US Commerce Department has surprised everyone by recommending high punitive tariffs for China’s solar panel makers, casting a huge new cloud over this important industry. Chinese solar shares all tanked on the news, with industry leaders Suntech (NYSE: STP), Trina (NYSE: TSL) and Yingli (NYSE: YGE) all tumbling by 5 percent or more after the news came out, re-approaching all-time lows reached late last year at the height of the sector’s current downturn due a global supply glut. I have no doubt that this isn’t the end of this story, and we’re likely to soon hear an angry response from Beijing, which has taken some steps in recent months to try and show it is weaning its solar cell makers from the kinds of government-sponsored subsidies that were the source of the US complaint against a group that now supplies more than half of the world’s solar cells. In the latest development in this case, the US Commerce Department has announced that all China-produced solar cells will be subject to punitive tariffs ranging from 31 to 250 percent. (
Having diffused a potential trade war with the US over unfair subsidies, China’s alternate energy firms are moving quickly to show they can be important investors in the markets where they do business rather than simply selling their products there, as evidenced by 2 newly announced deals in the wind and solar sector. Interestingly, both deals are in Canada rather than the US, with the first seeing solar panel maker Canadian Solar (Nasdaq: CSIQ) announcing a relatively major new solar power plant joint venture with local partner SkyPower. (
I’ll close out this week with a couple of items from the solar sector, where heavyweights Suntech (NYSE: STP) and Canadian Solar (Nasdaq: CSIQ) are continuing an ongoing public relations campaign to convince the west that their business is good for everyone and not just China. That campaign comes as growing signs emerge that the industry’s year-long downturn, which has sent most major players into the red, may finally be nearing an end and a new spring may soon arrive. China’s solar sector, which now produces more than half the world’s solar panels, has suffered a double blow over the past year, hit not only by a global supply glut but also by the threat of anti-dumping tariffs in both the US and Europe — the world’s 2 biggest markets. To combat the dumping claims, the sector has made repeated efforts over the last 6 months to show it doesn’t only sell its made-in-China products to the west, but that it can also help western economies by creating new jobs and business opportunities. The latest Suntech and Canadian Solar announcements appear to be part of that PR initiative. In one of the announcement’s Suntech said it has sold solar cells to produce 3.4 megawatts of electricity to Edwards Air Force Base in California, carefully pointing out that cells for the deal were produced at its factory in Arizona. (
After months of haggling and suspense, the US has finally made its decision in the contentious anti-dumping case against Chinese solar cell makers and found a middle ground in the form of a relatively light punishment accompanied by signals that Beijing needs to ease its unfair support for this industry. In the end, the Obama administration probably realized that it needed to take some kind of punitive action to satisfy critics of China’s strong support for its solar sector, especially in an election year. But at the same time, he also probably realized it’s in no one’s interest to deal a fresh blow to this already struggling sector developing sustainable energy alternatives to replace the world’s current dependence on fossil fuels. According to media reports, after a months-long investigation dating back to last summer, the Obama administration has finally decided to levy punitive tariffs of up to 4.7 percent — a relatively modest amount — on Chinese panels exported to the US. (
The days when a solar company could boost its share price by announcing its latest technological breakthrough seem firmly in the past, with the focus now squarely on sagging prices that have fallen by half or more over the last year due to huge oversupply. Industry leader Suntech (NYSE: STP) nicely illustrates this new reality with a new announcement that its latest technology has set a record for efficiency in the conversion of sunlight to electricity. Such advances are key to the long-term survival of the sector, as they will someday allow power plant operators to produce electricity more cheaply than other common methods, such as use of nuclear or fossil fuels, without the help of the government subsidies that are now required to make solar energy profitable. In a different time, perhaps a year or 2 earlier, Suntech’s announcement of its new record would have probably given the company’s stock a nice lift on Wall Street. (
It seems the storm dumping rain on Chinese solar cell makers for most of the last year won’t end anytime soon, with Chinese media now citing gloomy industry watchers saying Europe is likely to soon launch an own anti-dumping investigation into the industry following a similar one in the US. (
