EU leaders have warned that there will be “nothing left of European industry” if they do not start fighting Chinese competition, GB News reports.
Analysts believe that cheap Chinese solar panels will soon displace European manufacturers.
The European Solar Manufacturing Council (ESMC) has warned Ursula von der Leyen of devastating consequences for the industry unless urgent action is taken. The prime minister of the German state has put some of the blame for the problem on US “protectionism”.
The ESMC says Chinese panels have flooded the market, which could lead to global overcapacity. A letter to Ursula von der Leyen read:
If nothing is done now, there will be no European industry left in 2030. Xi Jinping’s plan to control the entire solar panel production chain will have worked and the aggressive strategy of the subsidised Chinese industry will have paid off.
Beijing subsidises Chinese products, making it impossible for European manufacturers to compete. The ESMC claims that this “has led to a collapse in panel prices, leaving European manufacturers with large quantities of unsold products on their hands.”
In the letter to von der Leyen, Žygimantas Vaičiūnas, ESMC Director of Public Policy, said:
This is the moment of truth to find out whether the European Commission and the Member States remain committed to their desire not to depend on imports of solar panels.
Four solar panel factories in the EU have said they will cease operations amid a huge backlog of unsold products.
The ESMC called for measures including “a mechanism to facilitate the purchase of stocks of unsold European solar panels” and changes to the legal framework “to strengthen the financing of projects using panels manufactured in Europe”.
Earlier, Meyer Burger, Germany’s largest solar panel manufacturer in Freiberg, Saxony, has threatened to shut down.
Saxony’s Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer blamed the US for the growing crisis, saying:
The situation arose because the US market was closed for Chinese solar panels and the products that were on their way from China to America could not be landed there, so the ships were diverted to Rotterdam. In other words, the problem arises because protectionism is being practised in America, and we are the ones who suffer.
