Chinese solar developers come up second best in the sunniest nations along the New Silk Road
Chinese players, who are known for their cutthroat approach domestically, are unable to make a breakthrough in emerging markets because of their rivals’ access to cheaper funding
Chinese solar developers, known for their aggressiveness in bidding for domestic projects at surprisingly low prices to expand market share, seem to have hit a wall in nations covered by Beijing’s Belt and Road economic development initiative.
Industry insiders said that Chinese firms’ lack of success in emerging solar markets was due largely to rivals’ access to low-cost funding. This should serve as a reminder to the country’s solar players that having the world’s largest solar equipment, materials and power generation industry is no guarantee of competitiveness outside their home market.
“In India, the competition is so fierce that Chinese firms can hardly compete with the low bid prices there,” Zou Peng, deputy general manager at Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region based TBEA Xinjiang Sunoasis, told the Photovoltaic Exhibition and Conference in Beijing on Tuesday.
“In Pakistan, Egypt and Africa, the pace at which bid prices declined from one round of project tender to the next was even faster than in China.
“For Chinese firms, the Catch-22 is either to enter and endure losses, or face not being able to gain a foothold in these markets.”
He noted that Chinese firms were unable to compete with rivals in the Middle East and South Asia because of their access to low cost financing and cheap land, even though most of their solar panels are made in China.