Suntech Power Plans US$60 Million Shanghai R&D Plant
Date: 21-Aug-06
Country: CHINA
Author: Sophie Taylor
"We actually purchased a big piece of land here in the industrial park. We're going to start R&D activity, and also some new types of activity for solar cell technology," Chief Executive Zhengrong Shi told Reuters in an interview.
The plant in Caohejing Hi-Tech Park, southwest of central Shanghai, is expected to begin operating in early 2008 and will have around 200 employees, Shi added.
Wuxi-based Suntech, which this month agreed to buy Japanese photovoltaic materials firm MSK Corp. to gain entry to Japan's solar energy market, opened its first sales office in Shanghai on Friday.
Companies including General Electric Co., Vestas Wind Systems AS and Gamesa Corporacion Tecnologica SA, as well as homegrown China Solar Energy Holdings Ltd. are expanding capacity in China's booming renewable energy market.
Beijing has said it wants a tenth of its energy to come from environmentally friendly sources by 2010 -- a desire driven by soaring oil prices, air pollution and environmental degradation.
"We do see an increase in our market share in China, in the area of solar power products such as street lamps or signal lights," Shi said, adding that Suntech had a 70 percent share of total production of its type of products in China.
Suntech's global market share is expected to reach about 7 percent this year, up from 5 percent in 2005, he said. (US$1 = 7.98 yuan)