Panasonic Corp announced it will withdraw from the solar manufacturing business due to fierce competition from its Chinese rivals. According to a report from Nikkei Asia, the company will end manufacturing of solar cells and panels at its factories in Malaysia and Shimane prefecture in Japan by March 2022.
The move marks a complete exit from the solar manufacturing business. The Osaka-based company had earlier announced that it was pulling out of a partnership with Tesla to produce solar panels at a factory in New York state.
Panasonic’s solar module manufacturing factory in Kulim Hi-Tech Park, Kedah was established back in 2011. It’s main purpose was to manufacture HIT (Heterojunction with Intrinsic Thin-layer) solar modules. The factory was used by Panasonic to meet the robust demand for solar products from around the world.
However, Nikkei Asia reported due to the increased production by Chinese manufactures, the price of solar panels has fallen to about a third of 2012 prices. The lower prices from China forced struggling Japanese players like Panasonic out of the business.
Panasonic, however, said it plans to stay in the renewable energy business and will focus its efforts on power management systems for smart cities.
“We are considering various measures to strengthen the management structure of the solar business but at this point, nothing has been decided,” the company said in a statement. It added that the Nikkei report was not something the company had officially announced.
With Panasonic exiting the scene, this leaves Kyocera and Sharp as the only major Japanese companies that are producing solar batteries and panels. Much of the global share is now dominated by Chinese manufacturers like JinkoSolar, and it looks like the Japanese makers who once led the market are continually losing ground.
