Panasonic Corp will invest as much as 50 billion yen (US$645 million) to build a solar panel plant in Malaysia, its first such facility overseas, as a strong yen pushes up production costs at home, two industry sources told Reuters.
The firm, which has been touting environmental and energy technology as key growth areas, dropped a plan to convert a television panel plant in Western Japan into a solar power factory in October because of the rising yen and an industry price war.
The Malaysia plant will start production in the financial year starting next April and bolster the company’s solar output capacity by 50 per cent to about 900 MW, the sources said.
The company plans both production of solar cells and assembly of solar panels at the plant, the sources said. Panasonic declined to confirm the plan.
“We will announce details of our solar panel growth strategy at the appropriate time,” said company spokesman Akira Kadota.
Competition among Japan’s big solar panel makers, including Sharp Corp and Kyocera Corp, is intensifying as they look to compete with rivals overseas. At the same time demand for solar panels is expected to slump in Europe due to cuts in government funding. -- Reuters
The firm, which has been touting environmental and energy technology as key growth areas, dropped a plan to convert a television panel plant in Western Japan into a solar power factory in October because of the rising yen and an industry price war.
The Malaysia plant will start production in the financial year starting next April and bolster the company’s solar output capacity by 50 per cent to about 900 MW, the sources said.
The company plans both production of solar cells and assembly of solar panels at the plant, the sources said. Panasonic declined to confirm the plan.
“We will announce details of our solar panel growth strategy at the appropriate time,” said company spokesman Akira Kadota.
Competition among Japan’s big solar panel makers, including Sharp Corp and Kyocera Corp, is intensifying as they look to compete with rivals overseas. At the same time demand for solar panels is expected to slump in Europe due to cuts in government funding. -- Reuters
