Suntech loses shine amid spiral into bankruptcy

Suntech Power, one of the world's most prominent solar panel producers, announced late Wednesday that it had accepted demands to file for bankruptcy reorganization by its eight creditor banks, a move analysts said is positive for the consolidation of China's photovoltaic (PV) industry.

"We are assessing the reorganization plan and other possible programs," Suntech CEO Guan Jinwei said in a statement.

Eight creditor banks of Suntech submitted an application for bankruptcy reorganization for the company to the Wuxi Intermediate People's Court in Jiangsu Province on Monday.

The remaining credit line provided by the banks amounted to 7.1 billion yuan ($1.14 billion) by the end of February, the Xinhua News Agency reported.

"The bankruptcy was expected," Meng Xian'gan, deputy director of the China Renewable Energy Society, told the Global Times Wednesday.

The company is reported to have a debt burden of $575 million worth of convertible notes.

Suntech's bankruptcy highlighted the problems in China's PV industry, which experienced fast growth over the past decade, but saw progress slow down recently amid problems like overcapacity caused by the pursuit of short-term gains. It has also been struggling amid anti-dumping measures initiated by the US and Europe, Meng noted.

"Suntech expanded too fast globally with a disorganized strategy," said Meng.

Zhu Ying, a publicity official with the Wuxi government, told the Global Times on March 14 that Suntech was still seeking government bailouts at that time.

"Letting Suntech go bankrupt rather than helping it would be better for the Chinese PV sector because consolidation of the industry is urgently needed," Meng said.

An official with the National Development and Reform Commission said "appropriate" government intervention would be necessary during the bankruptcy process, but it would be limited.

"China's PV industry is experiencing a contraction. Suntech's bankruptcy is a pity, but it's a normal phenomenon in a market economy," the official was quoted by Xinhua as saying.

Lin Boqiang, director of the Center for Energy Economics Research at Xiamen University, predicted a large number of small-sized firms would go bankrupt because domestic solar power usage is low due to high costs.

"Cooperation among the more competitive companies is the best choice at the moment," said Lin.

To help endure the hard times currently afflicting the domestic PV sector, another two of the country's leading solar energy companies signed a strategic cooperation framework agreement in Beijing Wednesday.

Under the agreement, Hong Kong-listed GCL-Poly Energy and New York Stock Exchange-listed Yingli Green Energy will cooperate in areas such as polysilicon materials, wafers and cells.

"The cooperation will expand to more areas covering the whole business chain," said Zhu Gongshan, chairman of GCL-Poly.

"The Chinese PV industry has passed through its primary stage, and it's time for deep consolidation," Wang Yiyu, chief strategy officer of Yingli, told the Global Times.

Wang added that capital cooperation between the two companies was possible "if needed."

Lin commented that the cooperation by these two leading companies represents a trend in the PV industry.

The number of domestic PV companies has risen to more than 2,000, but over 80 percent of solar enterprises stopped production after the US launched anti-dumping probes into Chinese products in November 2011, followed by similar moves by the EU, according to media reports.